The US Midterms are looking more challenging for the GOP – politicalbetting.com
Comments
-
The Bailey put as it were. Worth a lot.DavidL said:
I am not sure greater regulation is having the desired effect for the reasons I stated. Certainly most of the Basel 2 and 3 stuff has merely reduced competition in the sector and driven up the price of what remains. It has also made the supply of capital much more expensive given the capital ratios banks need to comply with. This has an adverse effect on growth.bondegezou said:
The high incomes of football players and pop stars may or may not be obscene, but they’ve never crashed the entire economy. The financial sector has. Ergo greater regulation is appropriate. The state effectively has to underwrite the finance sector, so the state gets to set the rules.DavidL said:
Why?thart said:
Conservatives are toast...removing cap on banker bonuses it an utterly appalling policywooliedyed said:LAB: 40% (=)
CON: 28% (=)
LDM: 10% (+1)
GRN: 6% (-1)
RFM: 5% (+1)
SNP: 4% (-1)
Via @PeoplePolling, 13 Sep.
Changes w/ 7 Sep.
No change with the new boys
Do we have a cap on the obscene wages of EPL players? Pop stars? Social Media influencers? No, we let the market decide. Those attacking the removal of the cap are hitting the wrong target. Why are skills in financial services, or the provision of financial services so valuable? It never used to be that way in the previous century. The people making profits from banks and finance were the shareholders, not the employees.
I think the answer to this is, in part, well meaning regulation. The barriers to entry in the industry are now such that those in it have an oligarchal ability to extract excess profits. We need much more competition in the provision of such services so that price competitiveness is restored.
What I think became clear is that the ultimate guarantee of the BoE was a huge, hidden subsidy for the sector. And that the sector as a whole should be paying for it.1 -
Alt-right said Fred?Theuniondivvie said:The fluting toned Mr Peterson fancies himself a dandy. He is not.
I'll grudgingly give Burble a couple of points for style tho'.
9 -
It was an apple!Leon said:
You just did it againTOPPING said:
That whole you posting bits of art after you'd googled it was one of the funnier episodes of PB.Leon said:
I forgot to mention I really enjoyed your angry, wounded amour propre: when you failed to recognise Masaccio's Holy TrinityTOPPING said:
LOL excellently catty!Leon said:
Yes, quite so: I know this phenom. Okri is a classic shelf decorator. Allegedly highbrow literature bought by decidedly middlebrow people like @Topping, who then mention that they've read him, quite a lot. As herejamesdoyle said:
Re the shelf-decorators: yes, I can attest to this as a former bookseller myself. Keys are: they buy hardbacks; they won't buy more than one by any given author; prizewinners are important; the author's name needs to be very visible from a distance. I've heard people talk about who's getting 'demoted' to make room for a current big name. Mantel was v. popular because of the size of her Wolf Hall series.TOPPING said:
Are you saying that people have different tastes in literature???jamesdoyle said:
And yet Mantel and Proust are fine for me (haven't read Joyce). The big modern worldbuilder for me is John Crowley. The Aegypt cycle is extremely dense and rewarding.TOPPING said:
Yes not for everyone. A bit like Mantel or, yes, Proust or even JJ himself. You've got to give yourself over completely to their world. If so much as your big toe remains outside it's all over.jamesdoyle said:
Interesting that there are Okri fans on here - I thought Famished Road was one of most turgid things I had ever read, as did the friend who lent it to me. Another (bookshop-owning) friend finds his books sell to the sort of people she describews as 'shelf-decorators'.WhisperingOracle said:Re; Ben Okri, I haven't followed his latest works, but looking up I saw that he's got too recent books out - "the age of magic" and "the freedom artist". I agree with you that he's a good, richly imaginative writer.
He wrote this quite nice piece about the Queen last week, which got very little exposure. I don't agree with everythng he says, but I think it's broadly good , and it's striking how he reveals more by taking such a different tone to the ultra-secular tone of the majority of modern society, but also remaining liberal and open. I haven't see a single other writer or journalist cover it in this sort of way.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/10/queen-elizabeth-was-part-of-our-psyche
"Queen Elizabeth ruled at a time when the spiritual energy of the world was moving from a male-centred universe to one desperately in need of feminine energies. After two world wars, after the toxicity of Nazism, which was male energy at its most disordered and insane, what the world truly needed, at the level of its subconscious, was a female force, a stable, balancing, presence."
I will have to give it a go never heard of him, embarrassing to say.
As for the "shelf-decorators" it begs two questions - first, are there really people who buy books just so they can have an impressive bookcase; and secondly, the more important question - what proportion of your books should you legitimately not have read and be planning to.
Edit: WAIT, WHAT??? Haven't read Joyce???????????????
What proportion of books can you have unread, but be planning to? For me it's currently running at around 5%: nearly 3000 books, of which around 150 are on the 'to be read' shelves.
Joyce: no, haven't got round to him yet. Even at around 100 books a year, there's only so much I can get through.
Loving it. I suppose for you middlebrow writing is a mountain you have yet to climb.
@Leon:
Randomly googles A N Other artist
Posts picture by A N Other artist on PB
Asks PB - "I bet you don't know what A N Other artist's favourite fruit was. I know. I know. I bet you don't know. Does anyone know? It's an apple. He loved apples."
Like a cross between David Brent and Abigail's Party.0 -
Is that the iPhone 666?CorrectHorseBattery3 said:
New iPhone2 -
Fair enough but football clubs have a tendency to cry and get bailed out if they get into financial trouble....so not a free marketMexicanpete said:
What has that got to do with Lineker. He is an free agent, and if his employers including the BBC deem him worthy of his remuneration, good luck to him. You are a free market Conservative and it's a free market, good for him.Big_G_NorthWales said:thart said:
Indeed. Normally if employees earn excessive wages in a free market competituon will move in to drive wages down. However we live in a system where the BOE prints money and the investment banks are closest to the money printer. Hence the obscene salaries. Does anyone seriously think JRM is worth what he has earnedDavidL said:
Why?thart said:
Conservatives are toast...removing cap on banker bonuses it an utterly appalling policywooliedyed said:LAB: 40% (=)
CON: 28% (=)
LDM: 10% (+1)
GRN: 6% (-1)
RFM: 5% (+1)
SNP: 4% (-1)
Via @PeoplePolling, 13 Sep.
Changes w/ 7 Sep.
No change with the new boys
Do we have a cap on the obscene wages of EPL players? Pop stars? Social Media influencers? No, we let the market decide. Those attacking the removal of the cap are hitting the wrong target. Why are skills in financial services, or the provision of financial services so valuable? It never used to be that way in the previous century. The people making profits from banks and finance were the shareholders, not the employees.
I think the answer to this is, in part, well meaning regulation. The barriers to entry in the industry are now such that those in it have an oligarchal ability to extract excess profits. We need much more competition in the provision of such services so that price competitiveness is restored.
Does anyone think Lineker is worth what he earnsthart said:
Indeed. Normally if employees earn excessive wages in a free market competituon will move in to drive wages down. However we live in a system where the BOE prints money and the investment banks are closest to the money printer. Hence the obscene salaries. Does anyone seriously think JRM is worth what he has earnedDavidL said:
Why?thart said:
Conservatives are toast...removing cap on banker bonuses it an utterly appalling policywooliedyed said:LAB: 40% (=)
CON: 28% (=)
LDM: 10% (+1)
GRN: 6% (-1)
RFM: 5% (+1)
SNP: 4% (-1)
Via @PeoplePolling, 13 Sep.
Changes w/ 7 Sep.
No change with the new boys
Do we have a cap on the obscene wages of EPL players? Pop stars? Social Media influencers? No, we let the market decide. Those attacking the removal of the cap are hitting the wrong target. Why are skills in financial services, or the provision of financial services so valuable? It never used to be that way in the previous century. The people making profits from banks and finance were the shareholders, not the employees.
I think the answer to this is, in part, well meaning regulation. The barriers to entry in the industry are now such that those in it have an oligarchal ability to extract excess profits. We need much more competition in the provision of such services so that price competitiveness is restored.
@DavidL is right on this though it is not real best optics at present
Apparently the BOE has endorsed the policy today0 -
Wasting money on a new iphone. You should get an old samsungvwith a sim only deal..£8 a month sortedSelebian said:
Is that the iPhone 666?CorrectHorseBattery3 said:
New iPhone0 -
Kaminsky G., Reinhart C.. The Twin Crises: The Causes of Banking and Balance-of-Payments Problems, American Economic Review, 1999, vol. 89 3(pg. 473-500)MISTY said:bondegezou said:
There’s a pretty clear pattern that reducing regulation leads to almighty crashes. But, sure, you should try and do the right regulation.DavidL said:
I am not sure greater regulation is having the desired effect for the reasons I stated. Certainly most of the Basel 2 and 3 stuff has merely reduced competition in the sector and driven up the price of what remains. It has also made the supply of capital much more expensive given the capital ratios banks need to comply with. This has an adverse effect on growth.bondegezou said:
The high incomes of football players and pop stars may or may not be obscene, but they’ve never crashed the entire economy. The financial sector has. Ergo greater regulation is appropriate. The state effectively has to underwrite the finance sector, so the state gets to set the rules.DavidL said:
Why?thart said:
Conservatives are toast...removing cap on banker bonuses it an utterly appalling policywooliedyed said:LAB: 40% (=)
CON: 28% (=)
LDM: 10% (+1)
GRN: 6% (-1)
RFM: 5% (+1)
SNP: 4% (-1)
Via @PeoplePolling, 13 Sep.
Changes w/ 7 Sep.
No change with the new boys
Do we have a cap on the obscene wages of EPL players? Pop stars? Social Media influencers? No, we let the market decide. Those attacking the removal of the cap are hitting the wrong target. Why are skills in financial services, or the provision of financial services so valuable? It never used to be that way in the previous century. The people making profits from banks and finance were the shareholders, not the employees.
I think the answer to this is, in part, well meaning regulation. The barriers to entry in the industry are now such that those in it have an oligarchal ability to extract excess profits. We need much more competition in the provision of such services so that price competitiveness is restored.
What I think became clear is that the ultimate guarantee of the BoE was a huge, hidden subsidy for the sector. And that the sector as a whole should be paying for it.
What evidence do you have for that assertion? Banking was way more regulated in 2008 than in the wild west 1980s, for example but it was in the former period we saw the banking crash. There was a crash in 1987 but that was stock market driven.
Allen F., Gale D.. Bubbles, Crises, and Policy, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 1999, vol. 15 3(pg. 9-18)
Hellman T., Murdock K., Stiglitz J.. Liberalization, Moral Hazard in Banking, and Prudential Regulation: Are Capital Requirements Enough?, American Economic Review, 2000, vol. 90 1(pg. 147-165)
Schneider M., Tornell A.. Balance Sheet Effects, Bailout Guarantees, and Financial Crises, Review of Economic Studies, 2004, vol. 71 (pg. 883-913)1 -
Aren’t you worried that your boy has been trounced by a joker then?Dynamo said:
WTF is wrong with you? I'm comparing one comedy candidate who won an election to another comedy candidate who won an election. Ethnic or religious identity or background is completely and utterly irrelevant.ydoethur said:
Do you often compare Jews to monkeys, or is it something you save specially for us?Dynamo said:Will H'Angus Zelensky be coming to the Windsor woman's funeral?
He may find himself caught between two stools: the hosts won't want him disrespecting the royal family by wearing army fatigues, and it won't look good for his home market if he wears mourning clothes when he rarely if ever wears them for all the Ukrainians who've died in the war.
Do you often mention Jewishness when it's completely and utterly irrelevant, or is it something you only do when you don't want a warrior president's background as a comedy election candidate mentioned?
0 -
I am happy to support greater regulation of football clubs then.thart said:
Fair enough but football clubs have a tendency to cry and get bailed out if they get into financial trouble....so not a free marketMexicanpete said:
What has that got to do with Lineker. He is an free agent, and if his employers including the BBC deem him worthy of his remuneration, good luck to him. You are a free market Conservative and it's a free market, good for him.Big_G_NorthWales said:thart said:
Indeed. Normally if employees earn excessive wages in a free market competituon will move in to drive wages down. However we live in a system where the BOE prints money and the investment banks are closest to the money printer. Hence the obscene salaries. Does anyone seriously think JRM is worth what he has earnedDavidL said:
Why?thart said:
Conservatives are toast...removing cap on banker bonuses it an utterly appalling policywooliedyed said:LAB: 40% (=)
CON: 28% (=)
LDM: 10% (+1)
GRN: 6% (-1)
RFM: 5% (+1)
SNP: 4% (-1)
Via @PeoplePolling, 13 Sep.
Changes w/ 7 Sep.
No change with the new boys
Do we have a cap on the obscene wages of EPL players? Pop stars? Social Media influencers? No, we let the market decide. Those attacking the removal of the cap are hitting the wrong target. Why are skills in financial services, or the provision of financial services so valuable? It never used to be that way in the previous century. The people making profits from banks and finance were the shareholders, not the employees.
I think the answer to this is, in part, well meaning regulation. The barriers to entry in the industry are now such that those in it have an oligarchal ability to extract excess profits. We need much more competition in the provision of such services so that price competitiveness is restored.
Does anyone think Lineker is worth what he earnsthart said:
Indeed. Normally if employees earn excessive wages in a free market competituon will move in to drive wages down. However we live in a system where the BOE prints money and the investment banks are closest to the money printer. Hence the obscene salaries. Does anyone seriously think JRM is worth what he has earnedDavidL said:
Why?thart said:
Conservatives are toast...removing cap on banker bonuses it an utterly appalling policywooliedyed said:LAB: 40% (=)
CON: 28% (=)
LDM: 10% (+1)
GRN: 6% (-1)
RFM: 5% (+1)
SNP: 4% (-1)
Via @PeoplePolling, 13 Sep.
Changes w/ 7 Sep.
No change with the new boys
Do we have a cap on the obscene wages of EPL players? Pop stars? Social Media influencers? No, we let the market decide. Those attacking the removal of the cap are hitting the wrong target. Why are skills in financial services, or the provision of financial services so valuable? It never used to be that way in the previous century. The people making profits from banks and finance were the shareholders, not the employees.
I think the answer to this is, in part, well meaning regulation. The barriers to entry in the industry are now such that those in it have an oligarchal ability to extract excess profits. We need much more competition in the provision of such services so that price competitiveness is restored.
@DavidL is right on this though it is not real best optics at present
Apparently the BOE has endorsed the policy today0 -
In West Cwmbran they have a trading estateHYUFD said:King Charles addressing the Senedd in Welsh
You can rent a warehouse for a reasonable rate
They had the first McDonalds in South Wales
And if you drank in the Moonraker you had to be nails
This is a story about a special place
Where if you take your car, you'll always find a space
And that was the story of how it began
And how you can be the Fresh Prince of Cwmbran1 -
Ugh
MULTIPLE BODIES AT MASS BURIAL SITE IN UKRAINE'S IZIUM FOUND WITH ROPE AROUND THEIR NECKS AND WITH HANDS TIED - REUTERS WITNESSES - Reuters News
https://twitter.com/phildstewart/status/1570744714445594626?s=20&t=-MZSM5as34cUqJOvJqTTCA0 -
If you press right there… ?Nigelb said:
One more Russian collaborator, "LNR Deputy Prosecutor General" Elena Steglenko, was in the office at the time of the explosion and died along with her boss from her injuries, UNIAN reports.ydoethur said:
'Look, when I said I wanted a good bang in my office, that wasn't what I meant!'RH1992 said:
He should have been more careful about where he stored his high explosives.williamglenn said:The chief prosecutor of the ‘Lugansk People’s Republic’ has been killed by a bomb in his office.
https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/15707231719924858880 -
bondegezou said:
Kaminsky G., Reinhart C.. The Twin Crises: The Causes of Banking and Balance-of-Payments Problems, American Economic Review, 1999, vol. 89 3(pg. 473-500)MISTY said:bondegezou said:
There’s a pretty clear pattern that reducing regulation leads to almighty crashes. But, sure, you should try and do the right regulation.DavidL said:
I am not sure greater regulation is having the desired effect for the reasons I stated. Certainly most of the Basel 2 and 3 stuff has merely reduced competition in the sector and driven up the price of what remains. It has also made the supply of capital much more expensive given the capital ratios banks need to comply with. This has an adverse effect on growth.bondegezou said:
The high incomes of football players and pop stars may or may not be obscene, but they’ve never crashed the entire economy. The financial sector has. Ergo greater regulation is appropriate. The state effectively has to underwrite the finance sector, so the state gets to set the rules.DavidL said:
Why?thart said:
Conservatives are toast...removing cap on banker bonuses it an utterly appalling policywooliedyed said:LAB: 40% (=)
CON: 28% (=)
LDM: 10% (+1)
GRN: 6% (-1)
RFM: 5% (+1)
SNP: 4% (-1)
Via @PeoplePolling, 13 Sep.
Changes w/ 7 Sep.
No change with the new boys
Do we have a cap on the obscene wages of EPL players? Pop stars? Social Media influencers? No, we let the market decide. Those attacking the removal of the cap are hitting the wrong target. Why are skills in financial services, or the provision of financial services so valuable? It never used to be that way in the previous century. The people making profits from banks and finance were the shareholders, not the employees.
I think the answer to this is, in part, well meaning regulation. The barriers to entry in the industry are now such that those in it have an oligarchal ability to extract excess profits. We need much more competition in the provision of such services so that price competitiveness is restored.
What I think became clear is that the ultimate guarantee of the BoE was a huge, hidden subsidy for the sector. And that the sector as a whole should be paying for it.
What evidence do you have for that assertion? Banking was way more regulated in 2008 than in the wild west 1980s, for example but it was in the former period we saw the banking crash. There was a crash in 1987 but that was stock market driven.
Allen F., Gale D.. Bubbles, Crises, and Policy, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 1999, vol. 15 3(pg. 9-18)
Hellman T., Murdock K., Stiglitz J.. Liberalization, Moral Hazard in Banking, and Prudential Regulation: Are Capital Requirements Enough?, American Economic Review, 2000, vol. 90 1(pg. 147-165)
Schneider M., Tornell A.. Balance Sheet Effects, Bailout Guarantees, and Financial Crises, Review of Economic Studies, 2004, vol. 71 (pg. 883-913)
LOL. What is quite funny is that none of those references are post banking crash. They are all pre-banking crash....??!!0 -
He started on Fox News with a late night political comedy show called "Red Eye" which was genuinely decent TV at first - the cohosts were a libertarian and a democrat, and they used to have guests from across the political spectrum and so on. Then it slowly just became ordinary Fox politics, then Gutfeld jumped to prime time with his new full-on conservative persona, to great success.Leon said:
Good God, I know him! (or knew him)carnforth said:
Greg Gutfeld (1 and 6 on the list) used to live in the UK, working for lads mags. He wrote an amusing book about it:Leon said:
Carlson has the second most watched show on US cable news. He is a pivotal media figure, and will be important in the POTUS elexthart said:
Yes interesting. Would be rather like moving a bunch of asylum seekers to HampsteadLeon said:Talking of race, as you are, Tucker Carlson - whatever you think of him - is extremely good at baiting the American Left on this subject (and others)
Check this
https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1570585089272053761?s=20&t=QaNTu_l1YSt0hBforg-kLw
Some of it is genuinely funny, some brusque and crude - but still likely effective
For the record, I abhor plenty of his views, especially his vile havering over Putin's war. But I can recognise powerful polemics, using humour
That said, he only gets 3.2m viewers, which is fairly pitiful given the size of the USA, indeed the viewer figures for all cable news are eye-openingly low
The top ten are all Fox, apart from one, Rachel Maddow, at 9
https://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/here-are-the-top-rated-cable-news-shows-for-q2-2022/510090/
The highest rated CNN news show is Anderson Cooper. He gets 767,000 viewers. It's TINY. He probably gets fewer viewers than GB News
Where, then, are Americans getting their news?!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lessons-Land-Pork-Scratchings-Miserable/dp/1847370667/
He appears to have become less fun and more trumpy since.
I had no idea he'd gone to America and found cable news fame. Fascinating0 -
My claim was that reducing regulation leads to almighty crashes. You asked for my evidence. There is some evidence. I made no specific reference to the 2008 crash, so I have not bothered providing evidence specifically referring to the 2008 crash.MISTY said:
LOL. What is quite funny is that none of those references are post banking crash. They are all pre-banking crash....??!!bondegezou said:
Kaminsky G., Reinhart C.. The Twin Crises: The Causes of Banking and Balance-of-Payments Problems, American Economic Review, 1999, vol. 89 3(pg. 473-500)MISTY said:bondegezou said:
There’s a pretty clear pattern that reducing regulation leads to almighty crashes. But, sure, you should try and do the right regulation.DavidL said:
I am not sure greater regulation is having the desired effect for the reasons I stated. Certainly most of the Basel 2 and 3 stuff has merely reduced competition in the sector and driven up the price of what remains. It has also made the supply of capital much more expensive given the capital ratios banks need to comply with. This has an adverse effect on growth.bondegezou said:
The high incomes of football players and pop stars may or may not be obscene, but they’ve never crashed the entire economy. The financial sector has. Ergo greater regulation is appropriate. The state effectively has to underwrite the finance sector, so the state gets to set the rules.DavidL said:
Why?thart said:
Conservatives are toast...removing cap on banker bonuses it an utterly appalling policywooliedyed said:LAB: 40% (=)
CON: 28% (=)
LDM: 10% (+1)
GRN: 6% (-1)
RFM: 5% (+1)
SNP: 4% (-1)
Via @PeoplePolling, 13 Sep.
Changes w/ 7 Sep.
No change with the new boys
Do we have a cap on the obscene wages of EPL players? Pop stars? Social Media influencers? No, we let the market decide. Those attacking the removal of the cap are hitting the wrong target. Why are skills in financial services, or the provision of financial services so valuable? It never used to be that way in the previous century. The people making profits from banks and finance were the shareholders, not the employees.
I think the answer to this is, in part, well meaning regulation. The barriers to entry in the industry are now such that those in it have an oligarchal ability to extract excess profits. We need much more competition in the provision of such services so that price competitiveness is restored.
What I think became clear is that the ultimate guarantee of the BoE was a huge, hidden subsidy for the sector. And that the sector as a whole should be paying for it.
What evidence do you have for that assertion? Banking was way more regulated in 2008 than in the wild west 1980s, for example but it was in the former period we saw the banking crash. There was a crash in 1987 but that was stock market driven.
Allen F., Gale D.. Bubbles, Crises, and Policy, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 1999, vol. 15 3(pg. 9-18)
Hellman T., Murdock K., Stiglitz J.. Liberalization, Moral Hazard in Banking, and Prudential Regulation: Are Capital Requirements Enough?, American Economic Review, 2000, vol. 90 1(pg. 147-165)
Schneider M., Tornell A.. Balance Sheet Effects, Bailout Guarantees, and Financial Crises, Review of Economic Studies, 2004, vol. 71 (pg. 883-913)1 -
If Truss is smart she will introduce direct payments to households for the negative impact of significant development and infrastructure projects including fracking. Also scheme to underwrite household insurance in case of damage from external development and mining etc. Much of the opposition would disappear if locals were getting a couple of grand per annum for the duration of a fracking site.0
-
(a) Truss is not smart.NorthofStoke said:If Truss is smart she will introduce direct payments to households for the negative impact of significant development and infrastructure projects including fracking. Also scheme to underwrite household insurance in case of damage from external development and mining etc. Much of the opposition would disappear if locals were getting a couple of grand per annum for the duration of a fracking site.
(b) I imagine if you did all that that no one would be interested in investing in fracking, which would leave Truss embarrassed.
2 -
"Can Trump win again? Absolutely. I’m a DeSantis doubter. I doubt someone so emotionally flat and charmless can win a nomination in the age of intensive media. And then once Trump is nominated, he has some chance of winning, because nobody is executing an effective strategy against him."
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/15/opinion/strategy-defeat-donald-trump.html0 -
Is there a term for the medical condition of serially attempting psychological diagnosis of pseudonymous internet posters ?Leon said:
Yes, quite so: I know this phenom. Okri is a classic shelf decorator. Allegedly highbrow literature bought by decidedly middlebrow people like @Topping, who then mention that they've read him, quite a lot. As herejamesdoyle said:
Re the shelf-decorators: yes, I can attest to this as a former bookseller myself. Keys are: they buy hardbacks; they won't buy more than one by any given author; prizewinners are important; the author's name needs to be very visible from a distance. I've heard people talk about who's getting 'demoted' to make room for a current big name. Mantel was v. popular because of the size of her Wolf Hall series.TOPPING said:
Are you saying that people have different tastes in literature???jamesdoyle said:
And yet Mantel and Proust are fine for me (haven't read Joyce). The big modern worldbuilder for me is John Crowley. The Aegypt cycle is extremely dense and rewarding.TOPPING said:
Yes not for everyone. A bit like Mantel or, yes, Proust or even JJ himself. You've got to give yourself over completely to their world. If so much as your big toe remains outside it's all over.jamesdoyle said:
Interesting that there are Okri fans on here - I thought Famished Road was one of most turgid things I had ever read, as did the friend who lent it to me. Another (bookshop-owning) friend finds his books sell to the sort of people she describews as 'shelf-decorators'.WhisperingOracle said:Re; Ben Okri, I haven't followed his latest works, but looking up I saw that he's got too recent books out - "the age of magic" and "the freedom artist". I agree with you that he's a good, richly imaginative writer.
He wrote this quite nice piece about the Queen last week, which got very little exposure. I don't agree with everythng he says, but I think it's broadly good , and it's striking how he reveals more by taking such a different tone to the ultra-secular tone of the majority of modern society, but also remaining liberal and open. I haven't see a single other writer or journalist cover it in this sort of way.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/10/queen-elizabeth-was-part-of-our-psyche
"Queen Elizabeth ruled at a time when the spiritual energy of the world was moving from a male-centred universe to one desperately in need of feminine energies. After two world wars, after the toxicity of Nazism, which was male energy at its most disordered and insane, what the world truly needed, at the level of its subconscious, was a female force, a stable, balancing, presence."
I will have to give it a go never heard of him, embarrassing to say.
As for the "shelf-decorators" it begs two questions - first, are there really people who buy books just so they can have an impressive bookcase; and secondly, the more important question - what proportion of your books should you legitimately not have read and be planning to.
Edit: WAIT, WHAT??? Haven't read Joyce???????????????
What proportion of books can you have unread, but be planning to? For me it's currently running at around 5%: nearly 3000 books, of which around 150 are on the 'to be read' shelves.
Joyce: no, haven't got round to him yet. Even at around 100 books a year, there's only so much I can get through.
You should consult a professional, just in case.0 -
Im sure some of the voting intention is impacted by the queens death etc etc, but I’ve not seen anything from Truss that seems to indicate she’s attempting to change peoples minds about her / the tories
The markets really aren’t liking it either. Rishi would be laughing if the whole situation wasn’t so tragic0 -
Cheaper to imagine and create one surely?Nigelb said:
Is there a term for the medical condition of serially attempting psychological diagnosis of pseudonymous internet posters ?Leon said:
Yes, quite so: I know this phenom. Okri is a classic shelf decorator. Allegedly highbrow literature bought by decidedly middlebrow people like @Topping, who then mention that they've read him, quite a lot. As herejamesdoyle said:
Re the shelf-decorators: yes, I can attest to this as a former bookseller myself. Keys are: they buy hardbacks; they won't buy more than one by any given author; prizewinners are important; the author's name needs to be very visible from a distance. I've heard people talk about who's getting 'demoted' to make room for a current big name. Mantel was v. popular because of the size of her Wolf Hall series.TOPPING said:
Are you saying that people have different tastes in literature???jamesdoyle said:
And yet Mantel and Proust are fine for me (haven't read Joyce). The big modern worldbuilder for me is John Crowley. The Aegypt cycle is extremely dense and rewarding.TOPPING said:
Yes not for everyone. A bit like Mantel or, yes, Proust or even JJ himself. You've got to give yourself over completely to their world. If so much as your big toe remains outside it's all over.jamesdoyle said:
Interesting that there are Okri fans on here - I thought Famished Road was one of most turgid things I had ever read, as did the friend who lent it to me. Another (bookshop-owning) friend finds his books sell to the sort of people she describews as 'shelf-decorators'.WhisperingOracle said:Re; Ben Okri, I haven't followed his latest works, but looking up I saw that he's got too recent books out - "the age of magic" and "the freedom artist". I agree with you that he's a good, richly imaginative writer.
He wrote this quite nice piece about the Queen last week, which got very little exposure. I don't agree with everythng he says, but I think it's broadly good , and it's striking how he reveals more by taking such a different tone to the ultra-secular tone of the majority of modern society, but also remaining liberal and open. I haven't see a single other writer or journalist cover it in this sort of way.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/10/queen-elizabeth-was-part-of-our-psyche
"Queen Elizabeth ruled at a time when the spiritual energy of the world was moving from a male-centred universe to one desperately in need of feminine energies. After two world wars, after the toxicity of Nazism, which was male energy at its most disordered and insane, what the world truly needed, at the level of its subconscious, was a female force, a stable, balancing, presence."
I will have to give it a go never heard of him, embarrassing to say.
As for the "shelf-decorators" it begs two questions - first, are there really people who buy books just so they can have an impressive bookcase; and secondly, the more important question - what proportion of your books should you legitimately not have read and be planning to.
Edit: WAIT, WHAT??? Haven't read Joyce???????????????
What proportion of books can you have unread, but be planning to? For me it's currently running at around 5%: nearly 3000 books, of which around 150 are on the 'to be read' shelves.
Joyce: no, haven't got round to him yet. Even at around 100 books a year, there's only so much I can get through.
You should consult a professional, just in case.0 -
Anyone else get the feeling I've touched a nerve here?Dynamo said:
WTF is wrong with you? I'm comparing one comedy candidate who won an election to another comedy candidate who won an election. Ethnic or religious identity or background is completely and utterly irrelevant.ydoethur said:
Do you often compare Jews to monkeys, or is it something you save specially for us?Dynamo said:Will H'Angus Zelensky be coming to the Windsor woman's funeral?
He may find himself caught between two stools: the hosts won't want him disrespecting the royal family by wearing army fatigues, and it won't look good for his home market if he wears mourning clothes when he rarely if ever wears them for all the Ukrainians who've died in the war.
Do you often mention Jewishness when it's completely and utterly irrelevant, or is it something you only do when you don't want a warrior president's background as a comedy election candidate mentioned?1 -
Does not look good; high rise cladding aflame.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/16/major-fire-breaks-out-at-skyscraper-in-changsha-china0 -
Absolutely no panic amongst Putin's placemen in the Donbas. No sir, the "P" word will not pass their lips....
https://twitter.com/francis_scarr/status/15704175405135585330 -
On the latest ruling from the judge Trump appears to have bought.
Here it is. A federal judge saying that a former president should be treated differently under the law.
https://twitter.com/ScottMStedman/status/15705549080757534730 -
The sad story of all American politics, left or right, and indeed much of the media: a retreat from wit and nuance, to total polarisation on the extremescarnforth said:
He started on Fox News with a late night political comedy show called "Red Eye" which was genuinely decent TV at first - the cohosts were a libertarian and a democrat, and they used to have guests from across the political spectrum and so on. Then it slowly just became ordinary Fox politics, then Gutfeld jumped to prime time with his new full-on conservative persona, to great success.Leon said:
Good God, I know him! (or knew him)carnforth said:
Greg Gutfeld (1 and 6 on the list) used to live in the UK, working for lads mags. He wrote an amusing book about it:Leon said:
Carlson has the second most watched show on US cable news. He is a pivotal media figure, and will be important in the POTUS elexthart said:
Yes interesting. Would be rather like moving a bunch of asylum seekers to HampsteadLeon said:Talking of race, as you are, Tucker Carlson - whatever you think of him - is extremely good at baiting the American Left on this subject (and others)
Check this
https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1570585089272053761?s=20&t=QaNTu_l1YSt0hBforg-kLw
Some of it is genuinely funny, some brusque and crude - but still likely effective
For the record, I abhor plenty of his views, especially his vile havering over Putin's war. But I can recognise powerful polemics, using humour
That said, he only gets 3.2m viewers, which is fairly pitiful given the size of the USA, indeed the viewer figures for all cable news are eye-openingly low
The top ten are all Fox, apart from one, Rachel Maddow, at 9
https://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/here-are-the-top-rated-cable-news-shows-for-q2-2022/510090/
The highest rated CNN news show is Anderson Cooper. He gets 767,000 viewers. It's TINY. He probably gets fewer viewers than GB News
Where, then, are Americans getting their news?!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lessons-Land-Pork-Scratchings-Miserable/dp/1847370667/
He appears to have become less fun and more trumpy since.
I had no idea he'd gone to America and found cable news fame. Fascinating
I caught a glimpse of Colbert the other day. Unfunny, strained, clumsily partisan, and tinged with Woke. He used to be so amusing, clever and complex, lampooning everyone (mainly the right but quite often the left). A terrible shame
0 -
I think he should change his rank to Lance Corporal and his name to Jones.MarqueeMark said:Absolutely no panic amongst Putin's placemen in the Donbas. No sir, the "P" word will not pass their lips....
https://twitter.com/francis_scarr/status/15704175405135585331 -
Are there stats, with demographic breakdown, on how many people read books AT ALL? Opinium periodically asks me what I've done this year and how often, with a list of major things like taking a long-haul flight. One of them is "I've read a book". There aren't many days when I've not read a few pages, at least, but I get the impression that this marks me as Olde School, like stamp-collecting or reading a physical newspaper.TOPPING said:
5% is great. I haven't done the math for mine.
I find it very difficult to get through, these days, even the Times Saturday Review without being tempted.
There are some that I purposely keep unread, waiting, as a treat at some point.
I detest people who say "oh you should read this" as the motives are near-universal point-scoring but....I don't think anyone should go through life without reading Portrait of the Artist.0 -
What will it do that the old one didn't? What is the impact on the planet of keeping buying new phones that do what the last one did?CorrectHorseBattery3 said:
New iPhone1 -
It's all good - Leon works through a lot of stuff on PB and has good self-awareness. If I can be of any help with that process then it is my pleasure.Nigelb said:
Is there a term for the medical condition of serially attempting psychological diagnosis of pseudonymous internet posters ?Leon said:
Yes, quite so: I know this phenom. Okri is a classic shelf decorator. Allegedly highbrow literature bought by decidedly middlebrow people like @Topping, who then mention that they've read him, quite a lot. As herejamesdoyle said:
Re the shelf-decorators: yes, I can attest to this as a former bookseller myself. Keys are: they buy hardbacks; they won't buy more than one by any given author; prizewinners are important; the author's name needs to be very visible from a distance. I've heard people talk about who's getting 'demoted' to make room for a current big name. Mantel was v. popular because of the size of her Wolf Hall series.TOPPING said:
Are you saying that people have different tastes in literature???jamesdoyle said:
And yet Mantel and Proust are fine for me (haven't read Joyce). The big modern worldbuilder for me is John Crowley. The Aegypt cycle is extremely dense and rewarding.TOPPING said:
Yes not for everyone. A bit like Mantel or, yes, Proust or even JJ himself. You've got to give yourself over completely to their world. If so much as your big toe remains outside it's all over.jamesdoyle said:
Interesting that there are Okri fans on here - I thought Famished Road was one of most turgid things I had ever read, as did the friend who lent it to me. Another (bookshop-owning) friend finds his books sell to the sort of people she describews as 'shelf-decorators'.WhisperingOracle said:Re; Ben Okri, I haven't followed his latest works, but looking up I saw that he's got too recent books out - "the age of magic" and "the freedom artist". I agree with you that he's a good, richly imaginative writer.
He wrote this quite nice piece about the Queen last week, which got very little exposure. I don't agree with everythng he says, but I think it's broadly good , and it's striking how he reveals more by taking such a different tone to the ultra-secular tone of the majority of modern society, but also remaining liberal and open. I haven't see a single other writer or journalist cover it in this sort of way.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/10/queen-elizabeth-was-part-of-our-psyche
"Queen Elizabeth ruled at a time when the spiritual energy of the world was moving from a male-centred universe to one desperately in need of feminine energies. After two world wars, after the toxicity of Nazism, which was male energy at its most disordered and insane, what the world truly needed, at the level of its subconscious, was a female force, a stable, balancing, presence."
I will have to give it a go never heard of him, embarrassing to say.
As for the "shelf-decorators" it begs two questions - first, are there really people who buy books just so they can have an impressive bookcase; and secondly, the more important question - what proportion of your books should you legitimately not have read and be planning to.
Edit: WAIT, WHAT??? Haven't read Joyce???????????????
What proportion of books can you have unread, but be planning to? For me it's currently running at around 5%: nearly 3000 books, of which around 150 are on the 'to be read' shelves.
Joyce: no, haven't got round to him yet. Even at around 100 books a year, there's only so much I can get through.
You should consult a professional, just in case.0 -
Razedabode said:
Im sure some of the voting intention is impacted by the queens death etc etc, but I’ve not seen anything from Truss that seems to indicate she’s attempting to change peoples minds about her / the tories
The markets really aren’t liking it either. Rishi would be laughing if the whole situation wasn’t so tragic
Seen today's retail sales numbers?
Sunak's policies are clearly throttling the life out of Britain's economy, at the same time as not yielding anything like the tax revenues he forecast. And that's before the Bank of England belated rate increases, coming down the pump shortly.
In six months time Sunak would be looking at a depression, a huge fiscal deficit and no way out on taxes save for a Corbynite kleptocracy.
Or bankruptcy, as it is otherwise known. If Sunak's laughing, it because losing saved him from a total catastrophe. A catastrophe his Brownism set up.0 -
Of all the paintings. Masaccio's Holy Trinity. The first example of linear perspectiveTOPPING said:
It's all good - Leon works through a lot of stuff on PB and has good self-awareness. If I can be of any help with that process then it is my pleasure.Nigelb said:
Is there a term for the medical condition of serially attempting psychological diagnosis of pseudonymous internet posters ?Leon said:
Yes, quite so: I know this phenom. Okri is a classic shelf decorator. Allegedly highbrow literature bought by decidedly middlebrow people like @Topping, who then mention that they've read him, quite a lot. As herejamesdoyle said:
Re the shelf-decorators: yes, I can attest to this as a former bookseller myself. Keys are: they buy hardbacks; they won't buy more than one by any given author; prizewinners are important; the author's name needs to be very visible from a distance. I've heard people talk about who's getting 'demoted' to make room for a current big name. Mantel was v. popular because of the size of her Wolf Hall series.TOPPING said:
Are you saying that people have different tastes in literature???jamesdoyle said:
And yet Mantel and Proust are fine for me (haven't read Joyce). The big modern worldbuilder for me is John Crowley. The Aegypt cycle is extremely dense and rewarding.TOPPING said:
Yes not for everyone. A bit like Mantel or, yes, Proust or even JJ himself. You've got to give yourself over completely to their world. If so much as your big toe remains outside it's all over.jamesdoyle said:
Interesting that there are Okri fans on here - I thought Famished Road was one of most turgid things I had ever read, as did the friend who lent it to me. Another (bookshop-owning) friend finds his books sell to the sort of people she describews as 'shelf-decorators'.WhisperingOracle said:Re; Ben Okri, I haven't followed his latest works, but looking up I saw that he's got too recent books out - "the age of magic" and "the freedom artist". I agree with you that he's a good, richly imaginative writer.
He wrote this quite nice piece about the Queen last week, which got very little exposure. I don't agree with everythng he says, but I think it's broadly good , and it's striking how he reveals more by taking such a different tone to the ultra-secular tone of the majority of modern society, but also remaining liberal and open. I haven't see a single other writer or journalist cover it in this sort of way.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/10/queen-elizabeth-was-part-of-our-psyche
"Queen Elizabeth ruled at a time when the spiritual energy of the world was moving from a male-centred universe to one desperately in need of feminine energies. After two world wars, after the toxicity of Nazism, which was male energy at its most disordered and insane, what the world truly needed, at the level of its subconscious, was a female force, a stable, balancing, presence."
I will have to give it a go never heard of him, embarrassing to say.
As for the "shelf-decorators" it begs two questions - first, are there really people who buy books just so they can have an impressive bookcase; and secondly, the more important question - what proportion of your books should you legitimately not have read and be planning to.
Edit: WAIT, WHAT??? Haven't read Joyce???????????????
What proportion of books can you have unread, but be planning to? For me it's currently running at around 5%: nearly 3000 books, of which around 150 are on the 'to be read' shelves.
Joyce: no, haven't got round to him yet. Even at around 100 books a year, there's only so much I can get through.
You should consult a professional, just in case.0 -
Do you mean read a book as opposed to read it on kindle or just read a book. I daren't think what the demographic would look like for either, frankly.NickPalmer said:
Are there stats, with demographic breakdown, on how many people read books AT ALL? Opinium periodically asks me what I've done this year and how often, with a list of major things like taking a long-haul flight. One of them is "I've read a book". There aren't many days when I've not read a few pages, at least, but I get the impression that this marks me as Olde School, like stamp-collecting or reading a physical newspaper.TOPPING said:
5% is great. I haven't done the math for mine.
I find it very difficult to get through, these days, even the Times Saturday Review without being tempted.
There are some that I purposely keep unread, waiting, as a treat at some point.
I detest people who say "oh you should read this" as the motives are near-universal point-scoring but....I don't think anyone should go through life without reading Portrait of the Artist.0 -
There’s some US data at https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2016/09/01/book-reading-2016/ That’s a median of 4 books per year, and a mean of 12.NickPalmer said:
Are there stats, with demographic breakdown, on how many people read books AT ALL? Opinium periodically asks me what I've done this year and how often, with a list of major things like taking a long-haul flight. One of them is "I've read a book". There aren't many days when I've not read a few pages, at least, but I get the impression that this marks me as Olde School, like stamp-collecting or reading a physical newspaper.TOPPING said:
5% is great. I haven't done the math for mine.
I find it very difficult to get through, these days, even the Times Saturday Review without being tempted.
There are some that I purposely keep unread, waiting, as a treat at some point.
I detest people who say "oh you should read this" as the motives are near-universal point-scoring but....I don't think anyone should go through life without reading Portrait of the Artist.0 -
I really hope the perpetrators see justice. Hell, they may already be dead, killed by the Ukranians. I'm struggling how the rest of the world is still talking to Putin. I get diplomacy, but this is WW2 levels of behavior.Leon said:Ugh
MULTIPLE BODIES AT MASS BURIAL SITE IN UKRAINE'S IZIUM FOUND WITH ROPE AROUND THEIR NECKS AND WITH HANDS TIED - REUTERS WITNESSES - Reuters News
https://twitter.com/phildstewart/status/1570744714445594626?s=20&t=-MZSM5as34cUqJOvJqTTCA1 -
4000 is _very_impressive. I've known a lot of people who say they've got 'thousands of books', and when I go around... not quite so many.Richard_Tyndall said:
I use the Library Thing website to keep a track of my books. Currently just under 4000 of which I have read about 2/3rds. Like you, I try to read 100 books a year but rarely ever hit the target. Normally around 80-90. So I reckon that as long as I live a reasonably long life I still have plenty of time to finish all the books I own but have not yet read.jamesdoyle said:
Re the shelf-decorators: yes, I can attest to this as a former bookseller myself. Keys are: they buy hardbacks; they won't buy more than one by any given author; prizewinners are important; the author's name needs to be very visible from a distance. I've heard people talk about who's getting 'demoted' to make room for a current big name. Mantel was v. popular because of the size of her Wolf Hall series.TOPPING said:
Are you saying that people have different tastes in literature???jamesdoyle said:
And yet Mantel and Proust are fine for me (haven't read Joyce). The big modern worldbuilder for me is John Crowley. The Aegypt cycle is extremely dense and rewarding.TOPPING said:
Yes not for everyone. A bit like Mantel or, yes, Proust or even JJ himself. You've got to give yourself over completely to their world. If so much as your big toe remains outside it's all over.jamesdoyle said:
Interesting that there are Okri fans on here - I thought Famished Road was one of most turgid things I had ever read, as did the friend who lent it to me. Another (bookshop-owning) friend finds his books sell to the sort of people she describews as 'shelf-decorators'.WhisperingOracle said:Re; Ben Okri, I haven't followed his latest works, but looking up I saw that he's got too recent books out - "the age of magic" and "the freedom artist". I agree with you that he's a good, richly imaginative writer.
He wrote this quite nice piece about the Queen last week, which got very little exposure. I don't agree with everythng he says, but I think it's broadly good , and it's striking how he reveals more by taking such a different tone to the ultra-secular tone of the majority of modern society, but also remaining liberal and open. I haven't see a single other writer or journalist cover it in this sort of way.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/10/queen-elizabeth-was-part-of-our-psyche
"Queen Elizabeth ruled at a time when the spiritual energy of the world was moving from a male-centred universe to one desperately in need of feminine energies. After two world wars, after the toxicity of Nazism, which was male energy at its most disordered and insane, what the world truly needed, at the level of its subconscious, was a female force, a stable, balancing, presence."
I will have to give it a go never heard of him, embarrassing to say.
As for the "shelf-decorators" it begs two questions - first, are there really people who buy books just so they can have an impressive bookcase; and secondly, the more important question - what proportion of your books should you legitimately not have read and be planning to.
Edit: WAIT, WHAT??? Haven't read Joyce???????????????
What proportion of books can you have unread, but be planning to? For me it's currently running at around 5%: nearly 3000 books, of which around 150 are on the 'to be read' shelves.
Joyce: no, haven't got round to him yet. Even at around 100 books a year, there's only so much I can get through.
I'm probably going to be around 80-90 this year, partly due to reading some chunky books - Don Quixote, Tom Jones and the like.
Have you come across the Japenese concept of 'tsundoku'? The library of books that you own, and will reads, but haven't yet. Considered a sign of an open mind.1 -
I'm not sure she does embarrassment.bondegezou said:
(a) Truss is not smart.NorthofStoke said:If Truss is smart she will introduce direct payments to households for the negative impact of significant development and infrastructure projects including fracking. Also scheme to underwrite household insurance in case of damage from external development and mining etc. Much of the opposition would disappear if locals were getting a couple of grand per annum for the duration of a fracking site.
(b) I imagine if you did all that that no one would be interested in investing in fracking, which would leave Truss embarrassed.2 -
Wokemack & WokemackOnlyLivingBoy said:
Alt-right said Fred?Theuniondivvie said:The fluting toned Mr Peterson fancies himself a dandy. He is not.
I'll grudgingly give Burble a couple of points for style tho'.2 -
Harvard law Professor Emeritus reduced to 'WTF'.
Judge Cannon says: “[T]here has been no actual suggestion by the Government of any identifiable emergency or imminent disclosure of classified information arising from Plaintiff’s allegedly unlawful retention of the seized property.”
Fact check: WTF?
https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/15707425032714690560 -
No, this is about thirteenth century levels of behaviour.turbotubbs said:
I really hope the perpetrators see justice. Hell, they may already be dead, killed by the Ukranians. I'm struggling how the rest of the world is still talking to Putin. I get diplomacy, but this is WW2 levels of behavior.Leon said:Ugh
MULTIPLE BODIES AT MASS BURIAL SITE IN UKRAINE'S IZIUM FOUND WITH ROPE AROUND THEIR NECKS AND WITH HANDS TIED - REUTERS WITNESSES - Reuters News
https://twitter.com/phildstewart/status/1570744714445594626?s=20&t=-MZSM5as34cUqJOvJqTTCA
How anybody can consider that we have to sit down and negotiate with these fuckers is beyond me. Just give the Ukrainians every piece of kit short of nuclear and vaporise them out of there.1 -
My sister is aiming to read 365 books this year. She came close last year. She does admittedly include some very short books…jamesdoyle said:
4000 is _very_impressive. I've known a lot of people who say they've got 'thousands of books', and when I go around... not quite so many.Richard_Tyndall said:
I use the Library Thing website to keep a track of my books. Currently just under 4000 of which I have read about 2/3rds. Like you, I try to read 100 books a year but rarely ever hit the target. Normally around 80-90. So I reckon that as long as I live a reasonably long life I still have plenty of time to finish all the books I own but have not yet read.jamesdoyle said:
Re the shelf-decorators: yes, I can attest to this as a former bookseller myself. Keys are: they buy hardbacks; they won't buy more than one by any given author; prizewinners are important; the author's name needs to be very visible from a distance. I've heard people talk about who's getting 'demoted' to make room for a current big name. Mantel was v. popular because of the size of her Wolf Hall series.TOPPING said:
Are you saying that people have different tastes in literature???jamesdoyle said:
And yet Mantel and Proust are fine for me (haven't read Joyce). The big modern worldbuilder for me is John Crowley. The Aegypt cycle is extremely dense and rewarding.TOPPING said:
Yes not for everyone. A bit like Mantel or, yes, Proust or even JJ himself. You've got to give yourself over completely to their world. If so much as your big toe remains outside it's all over.jamesdoyle said:
Interesting that there are Okri fans on here - I thought Famished Road was one of most turgid things I had ever read, as did the friend who lent it to me. Another (bookshop-owning) friend finds his books sell to the sort of people she describews as 'shelf-decorators'.WhisperingOracle said:Re; Ben Okri, I haven't followed his latest works, but looking up I saw that he's got too recent books out - "the age of magic" and "the freedom artist". I agree with you that he's a good, richly imaginative writer.
He wrote this quite nice piece about the Queen last week, which got very little exposure. I don't agree with everythng he says, but I think it's broadly good , and it's striking how he reveals more by taking such a different tone to the ultra-secular tone of the majority of modern society, but also remaining liberal and open. I haven't see a single other writer or journalist cover it in this sort of way.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/10/queen-elizabeth-was-part-of-our-psyche
"Queen Elizabeth ruled at a time when the spiritual energy of the world was moving from a male-centred universe to one desperately in need of feminine energies. After two world wars, after the toxicity of Nazism, which was male energy at its most disordered and insane, what the world truly needed, at the level of its subconscious, was a female force, a stable, balancing, presence."
I will have to give it a go never heard of him, embarrassing to say.
As for the "shelf-decorators" it begs two questions - first, are there really people who buy books just so they can have an impressive bookcase; and secondly, the more important question - what proportion of your books should you legitimately not have read and be planning to.
Edit: WAIT, WHAT??? Haven't read Joyce???????????????
What proportion of books can you have unread, but be planning to? For me it's currently running at around 5%: nearly 3000 books, of which around 150 are on the 'to be read' shelves.
Joyce: no, haven't got round to him yet. Even at around 100 books a year, there's only so much I can get through.
I'm probably going to be around 80-90 this year, partly due to reading some chunky books - Don Quixote, Tom Jones and the like.
Have you come across the Japenese concept of 'tsundoku'? The library of books that you own, and will reads, but haven't yet. Considered a sign of an open mind.
3 -
For those looking at SAD lights, may I also suggest directly topping up your vitamin D levels as well.0
-
Given that there is little to no chance any worthwhile amount of Gas will be produced I can't see much point offering direct payments...ydoethur said:
I'm not sure she does embarrassment.bondegezou said:
(a) Truss is not smart.NorthofStoke said:If Truss is smart she will introduce direct payments to households for the negative impact of significant development and infrastructure projects including fracking. Also scheme to underwrite household insurance in case of damage from external development and mining etc. Much of the opposition would disappear if locals were getting a couple of grand per annum for the duration of a fracking site.
(b) I imagine if you did all that that no one would be interested in investing in fracking, which would leave Truss embarrassed.
The reality is fracking is being announced so Truss can say she is doing everything possible to solve the energy crisis even though it won't help...
Meanwhile they will probably ban the sane options like solar farms and more on land wind turbines because well the local's don't want it....1 -
I wonder if William is having second thoughts?IshmaelZ said:
Byth yn mynd i roi'r gorau iddiHYUFD said:King Charles addressing the Senedd in Welsh
Ni fydd byth yn eich siomi
Peidiwch byth â rhedeg o gwmpas a'ch gadael
Byth yn mynd i wneud i chi grio
Byth yn mynd i ffarwelio
Byth yn mynd i ddweud celwydd a brifo i chi1 -
I think it tends to be a habit you either catch young, or don't catch at all.NickPalmer said:
Are there stats, with demographic breakdown, on how many people read books AT ALL? Opinium periodically asks me what I've done this year and how often, with a list of major things like taking a long-haul flight. One of them is "I've read a book". There aren't many days when I've not read a few pages, at least, but I get the impression that this marks me as Olde School, like stamp-collecting or reading a physical newspaper.TOPPING said:
5% is great. I haven't done the math for mine.
I find it very difficult to get through, these days, even the Times Saturday Review without being tempted.
There are some that I purposely keep unread, waiting, as a treat at some point.
I detest people who say "oh you should read this" as the motives are near-universal point-scoring but....I don't think anyone should go through life without reading Portrait of the Artist.
Both my children did.
And what better way to pass a long haul flight than read a book ?1 -
I've received a new phone today. Samsung Galaxy A13. It appears to have four cameras on the back for some reason.CorrectHorseBattery3 said:
New iPhone
Miracle of miracles, I have been able to set it up.
Work phone, so no cost to me.
I am not senior enough to be offered the option of an Apple product. Which I wouldn't have taken anyway.1 -
Will make TSE go "SQUEEEEEEEEEEE" with joy.turbotubbs said:
What will it do that the old one didn't? What is the impact on the planet of keeping buying new phones that do what the last one did?CorrectHorseBattery3 said:
New iPhone
Apart from that.....1 -
Actually, UK publishing is having a good time. Sales for 2022 are 10% up from 2019. Yay!NickPalmer said:
Are there stats, with demographic breakdown, on how many people read books AT ALL? Opinium periodically asks me what I've done this year and how often, with a list of major things like taking a long-haul flight. One of them is "I've read a book". There aren't many days when I've not read a few pages, at least, but I get the impression that this marks me as Olde School, like stamp-collecting or reading a physical newspaper.TOPPING said:
5% is great. I haven't done the math for mine.
I find it very difficult to get through, these days, even the Times Saturday Review without being tempted.
There are some that I purposely keep unread, waiting, as a treat at some point.
I detest people who say "oh you should read this" as the motives are near-universal point-scoring but....I don't think anyone should go through life without reading Portrait of the Artist.
https://twitter.com/JonnyGeller/status/1570704824022319104?s=20&t=-MZSM5as34cUqJOvJqTTCA
Nearly all fiction
Now this many be a load of insecure low watt intellectual mediocrities like @TOPPING buying the latest Okri so they can pretend to have read it, so they can then talk about it embarrassingly, or it could be actual people buying books and reading them
My guess is the latter. Indeed I'd have a guess this is because of Covid. A lot of people got back into the reading habit during the lockdowns - I know I did (eventually) - and maybe this habit is sticking?
If so, it's a rare upside of the wretched bug0 -
He actually lived in a Welsh-speaking part of Wales for quite a long time. He would have had a chance to have second thoughts then, if he wished.DavidL said:
I wonder if William is having second thoughts?IshmaelZ said:
Byth yn mynd i roi'r gorau iddiHYUFD said:King Charles addressing the Senedd in Welsh
Ni fydd byth yn eich siomi
Peidiwch byth â rhedeg o gwmpas a'ch gadael
Byth yn mynd i wneud i chi grio
Byth yn mynd i ffarwelio
Byth yn mynd i ddweud celwydd a brifo i chi
One thing that did strike me is there's no sign he learned Welsh during his time on Mon, but he was quite busy.0 -
I predict there will be no evacuation from Donetsk and Luhansk in the near future to match last year's British flight from Kabul, and that the Russian navy won't be leaving Sevastopol. Those predictions are for the pre-nuclear stage. Once it turns nuclear, most people who aren't generals or armchair generals won't give much of a toss for what flag is flying where.StillWaters said:
Aren’t you worried that your boy has been trounced by a joker then?Dynamo said:
WTF is wrong with you? I'm comparing one comedy candidate who won an election to another comedy candidate who won an election. Ethnic or religious identity or background is completely and utterly irrelevant.ydoethur said:
Do you often compare Jews to monkeys, or is it something you save specially for us?Dynamo said:Will H'Angus Zelensky be coming to the Windsor woman's funeral?
He may find himself caught between two stools: the hosts won't want him disrespecting the royal family by wearing army fatigues, and it won't look good for his home market if he wears mourning clothes when he rarely if ever wears them for all the Ukrainians who've died in the war.
Do you often mention Jewishness when it's completely and utterly irrelevant, or is it something you only do when you don't want a warrior president's background as a comedy election candidate mentioned?
0 -
Google is helpful like that.Leon said:
Of all the paintings. Masaccio's Holy Trinity. The first example of linear perspectiveTOPPING said:
It's all good - Leon works through a lot of stuff on PB and has good self-awareness. If I can be of any help with that process then it is my pleasure.Nigelb said:
Is there a term for the medical condition of serially attempting psychological diagnosis of pseudonymous internet posters ?Leon said:
Yes, quite so: I know this phenom. Okri is a classic shelf decorator. Allegedly highbrow literature bought by decidedly middlebrow people like @Topping, who then mention that they've read him, quite a lot. As herejamesdoyle said:
Re the shelf-decorators: yes, I can attest to this as a former bookseller myself. Keys are: they buy hardbacks; they won't buy more than one by any given author; prizewinners are important; the author's name needs to be very visible from a distance. I've heard people talk about who's getting 'demoted' to make room for a current big name. Mantel was v. popular because of the size of her Wolf Hall series.TOPPING said:
Are you saying that people have different tastes in literature???jamesdoyle said:
And yet Mantel and Proust are fine for me (haven't read Joyce). The big modern worldbuilder for me is John Crowley. The Aegypt cycle is extremely dense and rewarding.TOPPING said:
Yes not for everyone. A bit like Mantel or, yes, Proust or even JJ himself. You've got to give yourself over completely to their world. If so much as your big toe remains outside it's all over.jamesdoyle said:
Interesting that there are Okri fans on here - I thought Famished Road was one of most turgid things I had ever read, as did the friend who lent it to me. Another (bookshop-owning) friend finds his books sell to the sort of people she describews as 'shelf-decorators'.WhisperingOracle said:Re; Ben Okri, I haven't followed his latest works, but looking up I saw that he's got too recent books out - "the age of magic" and "the freedom artist". I agree with you that he's a good, richly imaginative writer.
He wrote this quite nice piece about the Queen last week, which got very little exposure. I don't agree with everythng he says, but I think it's broadly good , and it's striking how he reveals more by taking such a different tone to the ultra-secular tone of the majority of modern society, but also remaining liberal and open. I haven't see a single other writer or journalist cover it in this sort of way.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/10/queen-elizabeth-was-part-of-our-psyche
"Queen Elizabeth ruled at a time when the spiritual energy of the world was moving from a male-centred universe to one desperately in need of feminine energies. After two world wars, after the toxicity of Nazism, which was male energy at its most disordered and insane, what the world truly needed, at the level of its subconscious, was a female force, a stable, balancing, presence."
I will have to give it a go never heard of him, embarrassing to say.
As for the "shelf-decorators" it begs two questions - first, are there really people who buy books just so they can have an impressive bookcase; and secondly, the more important question - what proportion of your books should you legitimately not have read and be planning to.
Edit: WAIT, WHAT??? Haven't read Joyce???????????????
What proportion of books can you have unread, but be planning to? For me it's currently running at around 5%: nearly 3000 books, of which around 150 are on the 'to be read' shelves.
Joyce: no, haven't got round to him yet. Even at around 100 books a year, there's only so much I can get through.
You should consult a professional, just in case.
As was illustrated at the time, many people on here have forgotten more than you googled.
For me, for example, it is Alberti who is most associated with linear perspective but do you see how boring that line just was? I'd rather not do a David Brent, as you seem intent on doing.
But I can see this is touching a nerve so very happy to leave it with the comment that you are great, you know a helluva lot about renaissance art, linear perspective, aerial perspective and all points in between and after and you are all round amazing.
Not to depress you, however, but I will leave you with that line again which started this whole thing and clearly unnerved you, simple as it is:
"She hovers there in the halfway world of dream. "
You would kill or give up that fantastic greek wine you always go on about to be able to write a line like that.0 -
“The wit and wisdom of Jacob Rees-Mogg” I’m assuming is one of the short ones.bondegezou said:
My sister is aiming to read 365 books this year. She came close last year. She does admittedly include some very short books…jamesdoyle said:
4000 is _very_impressive. I've known a lot of people who say they've got 'thousands of books', and when I go around... not quite so many.Richard_Tyndall said:
I use the Library Thing website to keep a track of my books. Currently just under 4000 of which I have read about 2/3rds. Like you, I try to read 100 books a year but rarely ever hit the target. Normally around 80-90. So I reckon that as long as I live a reasonably long life I still have plenty of time to finish all the books I own but have not yet read.jamesdoyle said:
Re the shelf-decorators: yes, I can attest to this as a former bookseller myself. Keys are: they buy hardbacks; they won't buy more than one by any given author; prizewinners are important; the author's name needs to be very visible from a distance. I've heard people talk about who's getting 'demoted' to make room for a current big name. Mantel was v. popular because of the size of her Wolf Hall series.TOPPING said:
Are you saying that people have different tastes in literature???jamesdoyle said:
And yet Mantel and Proust are fine for me (haven't read Joyce). The big modern worldbuilder for me is John Crowley. The Aegypt cycle is extremely dense and rewarding.TOPPING said:
Yes not for everyone. A bit like Mantel or, yes, Proust or even JJ himself. You've got to give yourself over completely to their world. If so much as your big toe remains outside it's all over.jamesdoyle said:
Interesting that there are Okri fans on here - I thought Famished Road was one of most turgid things I had ever read, as did the friend who lent it to me. Another (bookshop-owning) friend finds his books sell to the sort of people she describews as 'shelf-decorators'.WhisperingOracle said:Re; Ben Okri, I haven't followed his latest works, but looking up I saw that he's got too recent books out - "the age of magic" and "the freedom artist". I agree with you that he's a good, richly imaginative writer.
He wrote this quite nice piece about the Queen last week, which got very little exposure. I don't agree with everythng he says, but I think it's broadly good , and it's striking how he reveals more by taking such a different tone to the ultra-secular tone of the majority of modern society, but also remaining liberal and open. I haven't see a single other writer or journalist cover it in this sort of way.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/10/queen-elizabeth-was-part-of-our-psyche
"Queen Elizabeth ruled at a time when the spiritual energy of the world was moving from a male-centred universe to one desperately in need of feminine energies. After two world wars, after the toxicity of Nazism, which was male energy at its most disordered and insane, what the world truly needed, at the level of its subconscious, was a female force, a stable, balancing, presence."
I will have to give it a go never heard of him, embarrassing to say.
As for the "shelf-decorators" it begs two questions - first, are there really people who buy books just so they can have an impressive bookcase; and secondly, the more important question - what proportion of your books should you legitimately not have read and be planning to.
Edit: WAIT, WHAT??? Haven't read Joyce???????????????
What proportion of books can you have unread, but be planning to? For me it's currently running at around 5%: nearly 3000 books, of which around 150 are on the 'to be read' shelves.
Joyce: no, haven't got round to him yet. Even at around 100 books a year, there's only so much I can get through.
I'm probably going to be around 80-90 this year, partly due to reading some chunky books - Don Quixote, Tom Jones and the
like.
Have you come across the Japenese concept of 'tsundoku'? The library of books that you own, and will reads, but haven't yet. Considered a sign of an open mind.
1 -
Of course, she could say "We will build a fleet of tidal lagoons around our coast - and within about 8 years, we will have masses of zero-carbon electricity that no-one can interfere with."eek said:
Given that there is little to no chance any worthwhile amount of Gas will be produced I can't see much point offering direct payments...ydoethur said:
I'm not sure she does embarrassment.bondegezou said:
(a) Truss is not smart.NorthofStoke said:If Truss is smart she will introduce direct payments to households for the negative impact of significant development and infrastructure projects including fracking. Also scheme to underwrite household insurance in case of damage from external development and mining etc. Much of the opposition would disappear if locals were getting a couple of grand per annum for the duration of a fracking site.
(b) I imagine if you did all that that no one would be interested in investing in fracking, which would leave Truss embarrassed.
The reality is fracking is being announced so Truss can say she is doing everything possible to solve the energy crisis even though it won't help...
Meanwhile they will probably ban the sane options like solar farms and more on land wind turbines because well the local's don't want it....
Yeah, right.2 -
Zing!Leon said:
Now this many be a load of insecure low watt intellectual mediocrities like @TOPPING buying the latest Okri so they can pretend to have read it, so they can then talk about it embarrassingly, or it could be actual people buying books and reading themNickPalmer said:
Are there stats, with demographic breakdown, on how many people read books AT ALL? Opinium periodically asks me what I've done this year and how often, with a list of major things like taking a long-haul flight. One of them is "I've read a book". There aren't many days when I've not read a few pages, at least, but I get the impression that this marks me as Olde School, like stamp-collecting or reading a physical newspaper.TOPPING said:
5% is great. I haven't done the math for mine.
I find it very difficult to get through, these days, even the Times Saturday Review without being tempted.
There are some that I purposely keep unread, waiting, as a treat at some point.
I detest people who say "oh you should read this" as the motives are near-universal point-scoring but....I don't think anyone should go through life without reading Portrait of the Artist.
And very flattering also, you are too kind.0 -
You can't make a book out of two sentences.* It would have to be part of an anthology.boulay said:
“The wit and wisdom of Jacob Rees-Mogg” I’m assuming is one of the short ones.bondegezou said:
My sister is aiming to read 365 books this year. She came close last year. She does admittedly include some very short books…jamesdoyle said:
4000 is _very_impressive. I've known a lot of people who say they've got 'thousands of books', and when I go around... not quite so many.Richard_Tyndall said:
I use the Library Thing website to keep a track of my books. Currently just under 4000 of which I have read about 2/3rds. Like you, I try to read 100 books a year but rarely ever hit the target. Normally around 80-90. So I reckon that as long as I live a reasonably long life I still have plenty of time to finish all the books I own but have not yet read.jamesdoyle said:
Re the shelf-decorators: yes, I can attest to this as a former bookseller myself. Keys are: they buy hardbacks; they won't buy more than one by any given author; prizewinners are important; the author's name needs to be very visible from a distance. I've heard people talk about who's getting 'demoted' to make room for a current big name. Mantel was v. popular because of the size of her Wolf Hall series.TOPPING said:
Are you saying that people have different tastes in literature???jamesdoyle said:
And yet Mantel and Proust are fine for me (haven't read Joyce). The big modern worldbuilder for me is John Crowley. The Aegypt cycle is extremely dense and rewarding.TOPPING said:
Yes not for everyone. A bit like Mantel or, yes, Proust or even JJ himself. You've got to give yourself over completely to their world. If so much as your big toe remains outside it's all over.jamesdoyle said:
Interesting that there are Okri fans on here - I thought Famished Road was one of most turgid things I had ever read, as did the friend who lent it to me. Another (bookshop-owning) friend finds his books sell to the sort of people she describews as 'shelf-decorators'.WhisperingOracle said:Re; Ben Okri, I haven't followed his latest works, but looking up I saw that he's got too recent books out - "the age of magic" and "the freedom artist". I agree with you that he's a good, richly imaginative writer.
He wrote this quite nice piece about the Queen last week, which got very little exposure. I don't agree with everythng he says, but I think it's broadly good , and it's striking how he reveals more by taking such a different tone to the ultra-secular tone of the majority of modern society, but also remaining liberal and open. I haven't see a single other writer or journalist cover it in this sort of way.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/10/queen-elizabeth-was-part-of-our-psyche
"Queen Elizabeth ruled at a time when the spiritual energy of the world was moving from a male-centred universe to one desperately in need of feminine energies. After two world wars, after the toxicity of Nazism, which was male energy at its most disordered and insane, what the world truly needed, at the level of its subconscious, was a female force, a stable, balancing, presence."
I will have to give it a go never heard of him, embarrassing to say.
As for the "shelf-decorators" it begs two questions - first, are there really people who buy books just so they can have an impressive bookcase; and secondly, the more important question - what proportion of your books should you legitimately not have read and be planning to.
Edit: WAIT, WHAT??? Haven't read Joyce???????????????
What proportion of books can you have unread, but be planning to? For me it's currently running at around 5%: nearly 3000 books, of which around 150 are on the 'to be read' shelves.
Joyce: no, haven't got round to him yet. Even at around 100 books a year, there's only so much I can get through.
I'm probably going to be around 80-90 this year, partly due to reading some chunky books - Don Quixote, Tom Jones and the
like.
Have you come across the Japenese concept of 'tsundoku'? The library of books that you own, and will reads, but haven't yet. Considered a sign of an open mind.
*The second sentence would be where Dimbleby tried to put him down by saying 'you were at Eton' and Mogg replied, 'Yes, I was there with your son.'2 -
And this is just one small town. Imagine what they will find in a place like Mariupolturbotubbs said:
I really hope the perpetrators see justice. Hell, they may already be dead, killed by the Ukranians. I'm struggling how the rest of the world is still talking to Putin. I get diplomacy, but this is WW2 levels of behavior.Leon said:Ugh
MULTIPLE BODIES AT MASS BURIAL SITE IN UKRAINE'S IZIUM FOUND WITH ROPE AROUND THEIR NECKS AND WITH HANDS TIED - REUTERS WITNESSES - Reuters News
https://twitter.com/phildstewart/status/1570744714445594626?s=20&t=-MZSM5as34cUqJOvJqTTCA
It is a bleak prospect, indeed. Ukrainians will want a terrible revenge0 -
You are like a thicko bully who throws out an insult that is completely idiotic, and then when he gets intellectually whacked to kingdom come by a flick of his adversary's little finger, retorts "So the truth hurts, does it?"ydoethur said:
Anyone else get the feeling I've touched a nerve here?Dynamo said:
WTF is wrong with you? I'm comparing one comedy candidate who won an election to another comedy candidate who won an election. Ethnic or religious identity or background is completely and utterly irrelevant.ydoethur said:
Do you often compare Jews to monkeys, or is it something you save specially for us?Dynamo said:Will H'Angus Zelensky be coming to the Windsor woman's funeral?
He may find himself caught between two stools: the hosts won't want him disrespecting the royal family by wearing army fatigues, and it won't look good for his home market if he wears mourning clothes when he rarely if ever wears them for all the Ukrainians who've died in the war.
Do you often mention Jewishness when it's completely and utterly irrelevant, or is it something you only do when you don't want a warrior president's background as a comedy election candidate mentioned?0 -
Depends how many of the Fast and Furious movies are on the plane's entertainment system.Nigelb said:
I think it tends to be a habit you either catch young, or don't catch at all.NickPalmer said:
Are there stats, with demographic breakdown, on how many people read books AT ALL? Opinium periodically asks me what I've done this year and how often, with a list of major things like taking a long-haul flight. One of them is "I've read a book". There aren't many days when I've not read a few pages, at least, but I get the impression that this marks me as Olde School, like stamp-collecting or reading a physical newspaper.TOPPING said:
5% is great. I haven't done the math for mine.
I find it very difficult to get through, these days, even the Times Saturday Review without being tempted.
There are some that I purposely keep unread, waiting, as a treat at some point.
I detest people who say "oh you should read this" as the motives are near-universal point-scoring but....I don't think anyone should go through life without reading Portrait of the Artist.
Both my children did.
And what better way to pass a long haul flight than read a book ?0 -
The Chinese have just told Putin "Don't even THINK about using nukes.... You made this mess. Sort it conventionally."Dynamo said:
I predict there will be no evacuation from Donetsk and Luhansk in the near future to match last year's British flight from Kabul, and that the Russian navy won't be leaving Sevastopol. Those predictions are for the pre-nuclear stage. Once it turns nuclear, most people who aren't generals or armchair generals won't give much of a toss for what flag is flying where.StillWaters said:
Aren’t you worried that your boy has been trounced by a joker then?Dynamo said:
WTF is wrong with you? I'm comparing one comedy candidate who won an election to another comedy candidate who won an election. Ethnic or religious identity or background is completely and utterly irrelevant.ydoethur said:
Do you often compare Jews to monkeys, or is it something you save specially for us?Dynamo said:Will H'Angus Zelensky be coming to the Windsor woman's funeral?
He may find himself caught between two stools: the hosts won't want him disrespecting the royal family by wearing army fatigues, and it won't look good for his home market if he wears mourning clothes when he rarely if ever wears them for all the Ukrainians who've died in the war.
Do you often mention Jewishness when it's completely and utterly irrelevant, or is it something you only do when you don't want a warrior president's background as a comedy election candidate mentioned?
I predict that your prediction will not age well.0 -
Top footballers and top bankers are both grotesquely overpaid; it's not either/or.
But I've never been entertained by top bankers, or marveled at their sublime skills.0 -
Mr. Mark, is the P word "Pushimoutofawindow"?2
-
Agreed. Russia just doesn't care enough about it's lower ranked troops or regional allies to expend the level of effort needed to get them all out.Dynamo said:
I predict there will be no evacuation from Donetsk and Luhansk in the near future to match last year's British flight from KabulStillWaters said:
Aren’t you worried that your boy has been trounced by a joker then?Dynamo said:
WTF is wrong with you? I'm comparing one comedy candidate who won an election to another comedy candidate who won an election. Ethnic or religious identity or background is completely and utterly irrelevant.ydoethur said:
Do you often compare Jews to monkeys, or is it something you save specially for us?Dynamo said:Will H'Angus Zelensky be coming to the Windsor woman's funeral?
He may find himself caught between two stools: the hosts won't want him disrespecting the royal family by wearing army fatigues, and it won't look good for his home market if he wears mourning clothes when he rarely if ever wears them for all the Ukrainians who've died in the war.
Do you often mention Jewishness when it's completely and utterly irrelevant, or is it something you only do when you don't want a warrior president's background as a comedy election candidate mentioned?1 -
Hey, you're the one repeating a well-known anti-Semitic trope while supporting a bunch of neo-Nazis.Dynamo said:
You are like a thicko bully who throws out an insult that is completely idiotic, and then when he gets intellectually whacked to kingdom come by a flick of his adversary's little finger, retorts "So the truth hurts, does it?"ydoethur said:
Anyone else get the feeling I've touched a nerve here?Dynamo said:
WTF is wrong with you? I'm comparing one comedy candidate who won an election to another comedy candidate who won an election. Ethnic or religious identity or background is completely and utterly irrelevant.ydoethur said:
Do you often compare Jews to monkeys, or is it something you save specially for us?Dynamo said:Will H'Angus Zelensky be coming to the Windsor woman's funeral?
He may find himself caught between two stools: the hosts won't want him disrespecting the royal family by wearing army fatigues, and it won't look good for his home market if he wears mourning clothes when he rarely if ever wears them for all the Ukrainians who've died in the war.
Do you often mention Jewishness when it's completely and utterly irrelevant, or is it something you only do when you don't want a warrior president's background as a comedy election candidate mentioned?
Which I would gently suggest speaks well neither of your character nor, if you genuinely hadn't thought through what you were saying, your intelligence.
You want to look at bullies? Does your house have mirrors?0 -
The line between that and outright hoarding isn't too thin but still scarily easy to cross. Read three books a month and buy five. It adds up.jamesdoyle said:
4000 is _very_impressive. I've known a lot of people who say they've got 'thousands of books', and when I go around... not quite so many.Richard_Tyndall said:
I use the Library Thing website to keep a track of my books. Currently just under 4000 of which I have read about 2/3rds. Like you, I try to read 100 books a year but rarely ever hit the target. Normally around 80-90. So I reckon that as long as I live a reasonably long life I still have plenty of time to finish all the books I own but have not yet read.jamesdoyle said:
Re the shelf-decorators: yes, I can attest to this as a former bookseller myself. Keys are: they buy hardbacks; they won't buy more than one by any given author; prizewinners are important; the author's name needs to be very visible from a distance. I've heard people talk about who's getting 'demoted' to make room for a current big name. Mantel was v. popular because of the size of her Wolf Hall series.TOPPING said:
Are you saying that people have different tastes in literature???jamesdoyle said:
And yet Mantel and Proust are fine for me (haven't read Joyce). The big modern worldbuilder for me is John Crowley. The Aegypt cycle is extremely dense and rewarding.TOPPING said:
Yes not for everyone. A bit like Mantel or, yes, Proust or even JJ himself. You've got to give yourself over completely to their world. If so much as your big toe remains outside it's all over.jamesdoyle said:
Interesting that there are Okri fans on here - I thought Famished Road was one of most turgid things I had ever read, as did the friend who lent it to me. Another (bookshop-owning) friend finds his books sell to the sort of people she describews as 'shelf-decorators'.WhisperingOracle said:Re; Ben Okri, I haven't followed his latest works, but looking up I saw that he's got too recent books out - "the age of magic" and "the freedom artist". I agree with you that he's a good, richly imaginative writer.
He wrote this quite nice piece about the Queen last week, which got very little exposure. I don't agree with everythng he says, but I think it's broadly good , and it's striking how he reveals more by taking such a different tone to the ultra-secular tone of the majority of modern society, but also remaining liberal and open. I haven't see a single other writer or journalist cover it in this sort of way.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/10/queen-elizabeth-was-part-of-our-psyche
"Queen Elizabeth ruled at a time when the spiritual energy of the world was moving from a male-centred universe to one desperately in need of feminine energies. After two world wars, after the toxicity of Nazism, which was male energy at its most disordered and insane, what the world truly needed, at the level of its subconscious, was a female force, a stable, balancing, presence."
I will have to give it a go never heard of him, embarrassing to say.
As for the "shelf-decorators" it begs two questions - first, are there really people who buy books just so they can have an impressive bookcase; and secondly, the more important question - what proportion of your books should you legitimately not have read and be planning to.
Edit: WAIT, WHAT??? Haven't read Joyce???????????????
What proportion of books can you have unread, but be planning to? For me it's currently running at around 5%: nearly 3000 books, of which around 150 are on the 'to be read' shelves.
Joyce: no, haven't got round to him yet. Even at around 100 books a year, there's only so much I can get through.
I'm probably going to be around 80-90 this year, partly due to reading some chunky books - Don Quixote, Tom Jones and the like.
Have you come across the Japenese concept of 'tsundoku'? The library of books that you own, and will reads, but haven't yet. Considered a sign of an open mind.1 -
pm215 said:
Even if you do like modern, biros are just straight-up bad as writing instruments compared to a good disposable gel ink pen, which writes far more smoothly and reliably. The only thing biros have going for them is that they are the cheapest of the cheap, and then you get what you pay for...turbotubbs said:
I can't imagine that Charles uses anything other than a fountain pen - he's a traditionalist. Biro is far too modern.
There's a practical issue. What KCIII wants to be certain of is that his signature will not fade - that means, for certainty, a fountain pen, with a bottle of permanent black ink from a known supplier. Also an ink that doesn't attack the paper (as some iron gall inks do). (A Rotring with IIRC carbon particle ink would also do. But it is more awkward to write with.)pm215 said:
Even if you do like modern, biros are just straight-up bad as writing instruments compared to a good disposable gel ink pen, which writes far more smoothly and reliably. The only thing biros have going for them is that they are the cheapest of the cheap, and then you get what you pay for...turbotubbs said:
I can't imagine that Charles uses anything other than a fountain pen - he's a traditionalist. Biro is far too modern.
Lots of biro or gel pens have ink dye which is fugitive with time and especially light. Some ink migrates and smears like a chromatograph if activated with vapour from adjacent materials (actually, that's exactly the principle).
Some gel ink pens are actually deliberately erasable. I buy them for marking up proofs in different colours, as I can then erase any mistakes or resolved queries. I have to be very careful not to use them for writing a cheque, for instance.1 -
You missed my quite excellent summary travelblog yesterday evening, of our road trip to Italy!Leon said:
Google says social media, especially Facebook. That's where 50%+ of Americans now get their newsBenpointer said:
Not from cable?Leon said:
Carlson has the second most watched show on US cable news. He is a pivotal media figure, and will be important in the POTUS elexthart said:
Yes interesting. Would be rather like moving a bunch of asylum seekers to HampsteadLeon said:Talking of race, as you are, Tucker Carlson - whatever you think of him - is extremely good at baiting the American Left on this subject (and others)
Check this
https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1570585089272053761?s=20&t=QaNTu_l1YSt0hBforg-kLw
Some of it is genuinely funny, some brusque and crude - but still likely effective
For the record, I abhor plenty of his views, especially his vile havering over Putin's war. But I can recognise powerful polemics, using humour
That said, he only gets 3.2m viewers, which is fairly pitiful given the size of the USA, indeed the viewer figures for all cable news are eye-openingly low
The top ten are all Fox, apart from one, Rachel Maddow, at 9
https://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/here-are-the-top-rated-cable-news-shows-for-q2-2022/510090/
The highest rated CNN news show is Anderson Cooper. He gets 767,000 viewers. It's TINY. He probably gets fewer viewers than GB News
Where, then, are Americans getting their news?!
I wonder if that is still true (about FB), and even if it is true, the news has to be generated somewhere else. FB is merely the medium
TLDR: France and Italy both remain exquisite in pretty much every respect (at least the parts we visited).
Eating out though is, as you suggested, is not what it was. Quality good not outstanding but pricier than the UK (except cheese and good wine).0 -
Conway: This ruling is absolutely a disgrace. And I don't think it's going to take very much to overturn it. Barr told The New York Times that the original motion by Trump's lawyers was a crock of shit, a crock of shit. This opinion is worse than that..Nigelb said:Harvard law Professor Emeritus reduced to 'WTF'.
Judge Cannon says: “[T]here has been no actual suggestion by the Government of any identifiable emergency or imminent disclosure of classified information arising from Plaintiff’s allegedly unlawful retention of the seized property.”
Fact check: WTF?
https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1570742503271469056
https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/15705703774866472960 -
6, 5, 7, 3, 1, 4, 2, Fate, 9, X is the best watching sequence.OnlyLivingBoy said:
Depends how many of the Fast and Furious movies are on the plane's entertainment system.Nigelb said:
I think it tends to be a habit you either catch young, or don't catch at all.NickPalmer said:
Are there stats, with demographic breakdown, on how many people read books AT ALL? Opinium periodically asks me what I've done this year and how often, with a list of major things like taking a long-haul flight. One of them is "I've read a book". There aren't many days when I've not read a few pages, at least, but I get the impression that this marks me as Olde School, like stamp-collecting or reading a physical newspaper.TOPPING said:
5% is great. I haven't done the math for mine.
I find it very difficult to get through, these days, even the Times Saturday Review without being tempted.
There are some that I purposely keep unread, waiting, as a treat at some point.
I detest people who say "oh you should read this" as the motives are near-universal point-scoring but....I don't think anyone should go through life without reading Portrait of the Artist.
Both my children did.
And what better way to pass a long haul flight than read a book ?2 -
My bookshop-owning friend (and while I'm at it, I'll give her a plug: The Book Ferret in Arundel, delightful independent bookshop staffed by 1 human and 3 whippets, do go and buy something) has noticed a real upswing in sales over the past few years. I think the lockdown did have an effect, but also a lot of her customers have tired of Kindles and ebooks in general,and gone back to paper.Leon said:
Actually, UK publishing is having a good time. Sales for 2022 are 10% up from 2019. Yay!NickPalmer said:
Are there stats, with demographic breakdown, on how many people read books AT ALL? Opinium periodically asks me what I've done this year and how often, with a list of major things like taking a long-haul flight. One of them is "I've read a book". There aren't many days when I've not read a few pages, at least, but I get the impression that this marks me as Olde School, like stamp-collecting or reading a physical newspaper.TOPPING said:
5% is great. I haven't done the math for mine.
I find it very difficult to get through, these days, even the Times Saturday Review without being tempted.
There are some that I purposely keep unread, waiting, as a treat at some point.
I detest people who say "oh you should read this" as the motives are near-universal point-scoring but....I don't think anyone should go through life without reading Portrait of the Artist.
https://twitter.com/JonnyGeller/status/1570704824022319104?s=20&t=-MZSM5as34cUqJOvJqTTCA
Nearly all fiction
Now this many be a load of insecure low watt intellectual mediocrities like @TOPPING buying the latest Okri so they can pretend to have read it, so they can then talk about it embarrassingly, or it could be actual people buying books and reading them
My guess is the latter. Indeed I'd have a guess this is because of Covid. A lot of people got back into the reading habit during the lockdowns - I know I did (eventually) - and maybe this habit is sticking?
If so, it's a rare upside of the wretched bug
There's also the effect of good series, and tv adaptations: Heartstopper is the Harry Potter of our times.2 -
Kindle's not my scene, but I'd count it as equivalent - it's the readiness to read stuff rather than how you do it that's interesting. Leon's stats don't sounds bad (if one agrees that reading is a Good Thing) - 2+ per head for the year to September, which must amount to nearly 3 if one excludes infants. I still wonder about demography, but Nigelb is probably right that either you get into it early or never do.TOPPING said:
Do you mean read a book as opposed to read it on kindle or just read a book. I daren't think what the demographic would look like for either, frankly.NickPalmer said:
Are there stats, with demographic breakdown, on how many people read books AT ALL? Opinium periodically asks me what I've done this year and how often, with a list of major things like taking a long-haul flight. One of them is "I've read a book". There aren't many days when I've not read a few pages, at least, but I get the impression that this marks me as Olde School, like stamp-collecting or reading a physical newspaper.TOPPING said:
5% is great. I haven't done the math for mine.
I find it very difficult to get through, these days, even the Times Saturday Review without being tempted.
There are some that I purposely keep unread, waiting, as a treat at some point.
I detest people who say "oh you should read this" as the motives are near-universal point-scoring but....I don't think anyone should go through life without reading Portrait of the Artist.
I'm less interested in whether they're reading Proust or Valley of the Dolls - the willingness to read someone else's ideas is the distinctive difference from people who never read anything.2 -
The tragedy is that the best way (maybe the only way) to stop the cycle is to not extract the revenge you are entitled to. See Germany 1945, or Spain 1975.Leon said:
And this is just one small town. Imagine what they will find in a place like Mariupolturbotubbs said:
I really hope the perpetrators see justice. Hell, they may already be dead, killed by the Ukranians. I'm struggling how the rest of the world is still talking to Putin. I get diplomacy, but this is WW2 levels of behavior.Leon said:Ugh
MULTIPLE BODIES AT MASS BURIAL SITE IN UKRAINE'S IZIUM FOUND WITH ROPE AROUND THEIR NECKS AND WITH HANDS TIED - REUTERS WITNESSES - Reuters News
https://twitter.com/phildstewart/status/1570744714445594626?s=20&t=-MZSM5as34cUqJOvJqTTCA
It is a bleak prospect, indeed. Ukrainians will want a terrible revenge
But it's hard to do for oneself, and impossible for a mortal to tell someone else to do that.0 -
Couldn't he just use docusign like everyone else?Carnyx said:pm215 said:
Even if you do like modern, biros are just straight-up bad as writing instruments compared to a good disposable gel ink pen, which writes far more smoothly and reliably. The only thing biros have going for them is that they are the cheapest of the cheap, and then you get what you pay for...turbotubbs said:
I can't imagine that Charles uses anything other than a fountain pen - he's a traditionalist. Biro is far too modern.
There's a practical issue. What KCIII wants to be certain of is that his signature will not fade - that means, for certainty, a fountain pen, with a bottle of permanent black ink from a known supplier. Also an ink that doesn't attack the paper (as some iron gall inks do). (A Rotring with IIRC carbon particle ink would also do. But it is more awkward to write with.)pm215 said:
Even if you do like modern, biros are just straight-up bad as writing instruments compared to a good disposable gel ink pen, which writes far more smoothly and reliably. The only thing biros have going for them is that they are the cheapest of the cheap, and then you get what you pay for...turbotubbs said:
I can't imagine that Charles uses anything other than a fountain pen - he's a traditionalist. Biro is far too modern.
Lots of biro or gel pens have ink dye which is fugitive with time and especially light. Some ink migrates and smears like a chromatograph if activated with vapour from adjacent materials (actually, that's exactly the principle).
Some gel ink pens are actually deliberately erasable. I buy them for marking up proofs in different colours, as I can then erase any mistakes or resolved queries. I have to be very careful not to use them for writing a cheque, for instance.0 -
That's seriously long-haul....Dura_Ace said:
6, 5, 7, 3, 1, 4, 2, Fate, 9, X is the best watching sequence.OnlyLivingBoy said:
Depends how many of the Fast and Furious movies are on the plane's entertainment system.Nigelb said:
I think it tends to be a habit you either catch young, or don't catch at all.NickPalmer said:
Are there stats, with demographic breakdown, on how many people read books AT ALL? Opinium periodically asks me what I've done this year and how often, with a list of major things like taking a long-haul flight. One of them is "I've read a book". There aren't many days when I've not read a few pages, at least, but I get the impression that this marks me as Olde School, like stamp-collecting or reading a physical newspaper.TOPPING said:
5% is great. I haven't done the math for mine.
I find it very difficult to get through, these days, even the Times Saturday Review without being tempted.
There are some that I purposely keep unread, waiting, as a treat at some point.
I detest people who say "oh you should read this" as the motives are near-universal point-scoring but....I don't think anyone should go through life without reading Portrait of the Artist.
Both my children did.
And what better way to pass a long haul flight than read a book ?0 -
Mr. Doyle, as a reader I prefer a book over an e-book, but lack of space and immediate delivery (plus lower price) means I go for both.
I wonder if e-books are being hit by an increasing dislike of online 'services' and wanting to more properly own something. That's a factor for me but it's hard to say if that's just my old-fashioned way of thinking or something more widely felt.3 -
Unfortunately, having to appeal drags the process out. Trump just needs to keep dragging everything out and he's fine.Nigelb said:
Conway: This ruling is absolutely a disgrace. And I don't think it's going to take very much to overturn it. Barr told The New York Times that the original motion by Trump's lawyers was a crock of shit, a crock of shit. This opinion is worse than that..Nigelb said:Harvard law Professor Emeritus reduced to 'WTF'.
Judge Cannon says: “[T]here has been no actual suggestion by the Government of any identifiable emergency or imminent disclosure of classified information arising from Plaintiff’s allegedly unlawful retention of the seized property.”
Fact check: WTF?
https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1570742503271469056
https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/15705703774866472960 -
"he ran on a very serious anti-corruption platform"BartholomewRoberts said:
Though of course he wasn't, he ran on a very serious anti-corruption platform.Endillion said:
He has clarified that it is because they were both joke/celebrity/novelty/celebrity (delete according to preference) candidates when first elected.Carnyx said:
Hartlepool simian of fame, I presume you know, but the link with Prez Zelenskii escapes me too. So I would welcome elucidation too.kinabalu said:What's this "H'Angus" business?
Though I can well understand why our Russian friend would consider democracy, electing people and being opposed to corruption would all be alien concepts.
Which seems to have achieved results - the Russian military problems with corruption are massive, evident and reported by the Russians themselves. The Ukrainian corruption problems in the military sphere appear to be much less.
0 -
South Africa did OK with the Truth and Reconciliation Committee.Stuartinromford said:
The tragedy is that the best way (maybe the only way) to stop the cycle is to not extract the revenge you are entitled to. See Germany 1945, or Spain 1975.Leon said:
And this is just one small town. Imagine what they will find in a place like Mariupolturbotubbs said:
I really hope the perpetrators see justice. Hell, they may already be dead, killed by the Ukranians. I'm struggling how the rest of the world is still talking to Putin. I get diplomacy, but this is WW2 levels of behavior.Leon said:Ugh
MULTIPLE BODIES AT MASS BURIAL SITE IN UKRAINE'S IZIUM FOUND WITH ROPE AROUND THEIR NECKS AND WITH HANDS TIED - REUTERS WITNESSES - Reuters News
https://twitter.com/phildstewart/status/1570744714445594626?s=20&t=-MZSM5as34cUqJOvJqTTCA
It is a bleak prospect, indeed. Ukrainians will want a terrible revenge
But it's hard to do for oneself, and impossible for a mortal to tell someone else to do that.
But that was made easier by the fact there was a widely respected figure to chair it. I do not see a possible equivalent to Tutu in Ukraine.1 -
Killing Wokeboulay said:
Wokemack & WokemackOnlyLivingBoy said:
Alt-right said Fred?Theuniondivvie said:The fluting toned Mr Peterson fancies himself a dandy. He is not.
I'll grudgingly give Burble a couple of points for style tho'.0 -
Or very careful when to use them for writing a cheque...Carnyx said:pm215 said:
Even if you do like modern, biros are just straight-up bad as writing instruments compared to a good disposable gel ink pen, which writes far more smoothly and reliably. The only thing biros have going for them is that they are the cheapest of the cheap, and then you get what you pay for...turbotubbs said:
I can't imagine that Charles uses anything other than a fountain pen - he's a traditionalist. Biro is far too modern.
...Some gel ink pens are actually deliberately erasable. I buy them for marking up proofs in different colours, as I can then erase any mistakes or resolved queries. I have to be very careful not to use them for writing a cheque, for instance.pm215 said:
Even if you do like modern, biros are just straight-up bad as writing instruments compared to a good disposable gel ink pen, which writes far more smoothly and reliably. The only thing biros have going for them is that they are the cheapest of the cheap, and then you get what you pay for...turbotubbs said:
I can't imagine that Charles uses anything other than a fountain pen - he's a traditionalist. Biro is far too modern.0 -
Can't say I'm outraged. MPs getting to queue jump seems perfectly reasonable.Scott_xP said:Lots of MPs’ staffers are angry MPs can skip the queue to see the Queen lying in state and they can’t. “Hierarchy strikes again,” one tells me after being sent this https://twitter.com/REWearmouth/status/1570682978661203968/photo/1
Staffers also cannot vote in the Commons, it's that hierarchy again.1 -
What about Proust *and* Valley of the Dolls?NickPalmer said:
Kindle's not my scene, but I'd count it as equivalent - it's the readiness to read stuff rather than how you do it that's interesting. Leon's stats don't sounds bad (if one agrees that reading is a Good Thing) - 2+ per head for the year to September, which must amount to nearly 3 if one excludes infants. I still wonder about demography, but Nigelb is probably right that either you get into it early or never do.TOPPING said:
Do you mean read a book as opposed to read it on kindle or just read a book. I daren't think what the demographic would look like for either, frankly.NickPalmer said:
Are there stats, with demographic breakdown, on how many people read books AT ALL? Opinium periodically asks me what I've done this year and how often, with a list of major things like taking a long-haul flight. One of them is "I've read a book". There aren't many days when I've not read a few pages, at least, but I get the impression that this marks me as Olde School, like stamp-collecting or reading a physical newspaper.TOPPING said:
5% is great. I haven't done the math for mine.
I find it very difficult to get through, these days, even the Times Saturday Review without being tempted.
There are some that I purposely keep unread, waiting, as a treat at some point.
I detest people who say "oh you should read this" as the motives are near-universal point-scoring but....I don't think anyone should go through life without reading Portrait of the Artist.
I'm less interested in whether they're reading Proust or Valley of the Dolls - the willingness to read someone else's ideas is the distinctive difference from people who never read anything.
Both excellent. I can still now (some XX years after) remember the final dilemma/choice in VotD. Fantastic.0 -
You tried every order ?Dura_Ace said:
6, 5, 7, 3, 1, 4, 2, Fate, 9, X is the best watching sequence.OnlyLivingBoy said:
Depends how many of the Fast and Furious movies are on the plane's entertainment system.Nigelb said:
I think it tends to be a habit you either catch young, or don't catch at all.NickPalmer said:
Are there stats, with demographic breakdown, on how many people read books AT ALL? Opinium periodically asks me what I've done this year and how often, with a list of major things like taking a long-haul flight. One of them is "I've read a book". There aren't many days when I've not read a few pages, at least, but I get the impression that this marks me as Olde School, like stamp-collecting or reading a physical newspaper.TOPPING said:
5% is great. I haven't done the math for mine.
I find it very difficult to get through, these days, even the Times Saturday Review without being tempted.
There are some that I purposely keep unread, waiting, as a treat at some point.
I detest people who say "oh you should read this" as the motives are near-universal point-scoring but....I don't think anyone should go through life without reading Portrait of the Artist.
Both my children did.
And what better way to pass a long haul flight than read a book ?0 -
Mr & Mrs O'Windsor having a grand ould time. Slap on the bake is a cracking phrase..
https://twitter.com/LloydLoyalist/status/1570711509617242116?s=20&t=uaBwLrPgGpToZlfyTAzp-A
0 -
This is the kind of top grade insight only available on here.Dura_Ace said:
6, 5, 7, 3, 1, 4, 2, Fate, 9, X is the best watching sequence.OnlyLivingBoy said:
Depends how many of the Fast and Furious movies are on the plane's entertainment system.Nigelb said:
I think it tends to be a habit you either catch young, or don't catch at all.NickPalmer said:
Are there stats, with demographic breakdown, on how many people read books AT ALL? Opinium periodically asks me what I've done this year and how often, with a list of major things like taking a long-haul flight. One of them is "I've read a book". There aren't many days when I've not read a few pages, at least, but I get the impression that this marks me as Olde School, like stamp-collecting or reading a physical newspaper.TOPPING said:
5% is great. I haven't done the math for mine.
I find it very difficult to get through, these days, even the Times Saturday Review without being tempted.
There are some that I purposely keep unread, waiting, as a treat at some point.
I detest people who say "oh you should read this" as the motives are near-universal point-scoring but....I don't think anyone should go through life without reading Portrait of the Artist.
Both my children did.
And what better way to pass a long haul flight than read a book ?0 -
Putin wasn't murdering for the KGB - he was a paper pusher, I believe.IshmaelZ said:
Some of them do just fine, others are Boris Johnson. There have been stacks of hereditary monarchs who were spectacularly good at their jobs, so maybe how you got the gig is not so important. On current showing, being a TV comic seems to work better than murdering for the KGB.Dura_Ace said:
He was the mascot of Hartlepool United FC who got elected as the mayor of that benighted shit hole. It was the first place in the UK to have an Anne Summers next to an Early Learning Centre. It just saves time.kinabalu said:What's this "H'Angus" business?
I suspect Dynamo is rejecting the green t-shirt dialectic of the Prince of the Kievan Rus' and drawing a comparison with novelty candidates who inadvertently find themselves thrust into Great Events.
The murdering is a hobby he took up later in life - "Find a hobby that people will pay you for, and you'll be happy for life"0 -
I don’t know, I thought Fred “The Shred” Godwin’s nutmeg on Gordon Brown after Brown’s team attempting “Dutch Total Football” with the ABN Amro tactic leading to a killer own-goal in the GFC cup was entertaining.Northern_Al said:Top footballers and top bankers are both grotesquely overpaid; it's not either/or.
But I've never been entertained by top bankers, or marveled at their sublime skills.2 -
No, I read it, and thought it interesting and judiciousBenpointer said:
You missed my quite excellent summary travelblog yesterday evening, of our road trip to Italy!Leon said:
Google says social media, especially Facebook. That's where 50%+ of Americans now get their newsBenpointer said:
Not from cable?Leon said:
Carlson has the second most watched show on US cable news. He is a pivotal media figure, and will be important in the POTUS elexthart said:
Yes interesting. Would be rather like moving a bunch of asylum seekers to HampsteadLeon said:Talking of race, as you are, Tucker Carlson - whatever you think of him - is extremely good at baiting the American Left on this subject (and others)
Check this
https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1570585089272053761?s=20&t=QaNTu_l1YSt0hBforg-kLw
Some of it is genuinely funny, some brusque and crude - but still likely effective
For the record, I abhor plenty of his views, especially his vile havering over Putin's war. But I can recognise powerful polemics, using humour
That said, he only gets 3.2m viewers, which is fairly pitiful given the size of the USA, indeed the viewer figures for all cable news are eye-openingly low
The top ten are all Fox, apart from one, Rachel Maddow, at 9
https://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/here-are-the-top-rated-cable-news-shows-for-q2-2022/510090/
The highest rated CNN news show is Anderson Cooper. He gets 767,000 viewers. It's TINY. He probably gets fewer viewers than GB News
Where, then, are Americans getting their news?!
I wonder if that is still true (about FB), and even if it is true, the news has to be generated somewhere else. FB is merely the medium
TLDR: France and Italy both remain exquisite in pretty much every respect (at least the parts we visited).
Eating out though is, as you suggested, is not what it was. Quality good not outstanding but pricier than the UK (except cheese and good wine).
France and Italy are indeed magnificently beautiful countries, which have not trashed their cities and towns, the way we have, too often - and continue to do, amazingly. What is wrong with us. The turd in Edinburgh!
That said, most tourism is confirmation bias, you go to the beautiful bits. France and Italy have some crap regions as well. Large parts of Picardy in France, also the Cognac region down to Bordeaux: often surprisingly bleak. An industrial landscape, except the industry there is wine, so we don't realise
Shit bits of Italy: urban parts of Liguria, the endless suburbia of the Veneto, the sprawl north of Milan, the dormitory towns of Naples, nearly all of Calabria
But they probably don't have as many crap regions/towns as us, and they are simply bigger, so they can hide them better
Re the food, I can't work out if the decline is relative or absolute. Have we just caught up with French/Italian food so we are less impressed, or has it actually got worse? I suspect both. And we notice the lack of variety more, as our own food is so diverse
Speaking of food I had another absolutely excellent meal in Seville last night. The fourth in a row. It is not a fluke. Spanish food is now the best in Europe, maybe the world0 -
ebooks are good if, like me, you used to take 15 books on the flight, stuff them somehow beside you (depending on class flown) and then end up watching Fast & Furious 7 instead.3
-
Sure, people do ridiculous ultramarathons now, stupendous feats of human endurance. But let's see them manage this.Scott_xP said:Tens of thousands of people divided into 3 pens in Southwark Park. The queue is now officially ‘paused’ for six hours because the park is at capacity. Those at the back face a 14 hour wait. #QueenElizabeth #lyinginstatequeue https://twitter.com/ChloeKeedyITV/status/1570717671045607425/video/1
0 -
I know the feeling only too well. Though lockdown prompted me to start reading through my "new" books with some success.Kevin_McCandless said:
The line between that and outright hoarding isn't too thin but still scarily easy to cross. Read three books a month and buy five. It adds up.jamesdoyle said:
4000 is _very_impressive. I've known a lot of people who say they've got 'thousands of books', and when I go around... not quite so many.Richard_Tyndall said:
I use the Library Thing website to keep a track of my books. Currently just under 4000 of which I have read about 2/3rds. Like you, I try to read 100 books a year but rarely ever hit the target. Normally around 80-90. So I reckon that as long as I live a reasonably long life I still have plenty of time to finish all the books I own but have not yet read.jamesdoyle said:
Re the shelf-decorators: yes, I can attest to this as a former bookseller myself. Keys are: they buy hardbacks; they won't buy more than one by any given author; prizewinners are important; the author's name needs to be very visible from a distance. I've heard people talk about who's getting 'demoted' to make room for a current big name. Mantel was v. popular because of the size of her Wolf Hall series.TOPPING said:
Are you saying that people have different tastes in literature???jamesdoyle said:
And yet Mantel and Proust are fine for me (haven't read Joyce). The big modern worldbuilder for me is John Crowley. The Aegypt cycle is extremely dense and rewarding.TOPPING said:
Yes not for everyone. A bit like Mantel or, yes, Proust or even JJ himself. You've got to give yourself over completely to their world. If so much as your big toe remains outside it's all over.jamesdoyle said:
Interesting that there are Okri fans on here - I thought Famished Road was one of most turgid things I had ever read, as did the friend who lent it to me. Another (bookshop-owning) friend finds his books sell to the sort of people she describews as 'shelf-decorators'.WhisperingOracle said:Re; Ben Okri, I haven't followed his latest works, but looking up I saw that he's got too recent books out - "the age of magic" and "the freedom artist". I agree with you that he's a good, richly imaginative writer.
He wrote this quite nice piece about the Queen last week, which got very little exposure. I don't agree with everythng he says, but I think it's broadly good , and it's striking how he reveals more by taking such a different tone to the ultra-secular tone of the majority of modern society, but also remaining liberal and open. I haven't see a single other writer or journalist cover it in this sort of way.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/10/queen-elizabeth-was-part-of-our-psyche
"Queen Elizabeth ruled at a time when the spiritual energy of the world was moving from a male-centred universe to one desperately in need of feminine energies. After two world wars, after the toxicity of Nazism, which was male energy at its most disordered and insane, what the world truly needed, at the level of its subconscious, was a female force, a stable, balancing, presence."
I will have to give it a go never heard of him, embarrassing to say.
As for the "shelf-decorators" it begs two questions - first, are there really people who buy books just so they can have an impressive bookcase; and secondly, the more important question - what proportion of your books should you legitimately not have read and be planning to.
Edit: WAIT, WHAT??? Haven't read Joyce???????????????
What proportion of books can you have unread, but be planning to? For me it's currently running at around 5%: nearly 3000 books, of which around 150 are on the 'to be read' shelves.
Joyce: no, haven't got round to him yet. Even at around 100 books a year, there's only so much I can get through.
I'm probably going to be around 80-90 this year, partly due to reading some chunky books - Don Quixote, Tom Jones and the like.
Have you come across the Japenese concept of 'tsundoku'? The library of books that you own, and will reads, but haven't yet. Considered a sign of an open mind.
Must have more than 50 metres of shelf space, some in double parking, and some in boxes, as a result of bringing home some of my late father's books. I am in the middle of a huge sort out and rationalisation over some months. Easier than expected as interests change and so on - Mervyn Peake no longer attracts me as much as it did my teenage self, for instance - but even so I'd estimate about 15++ wine boxes of books have gone to charity (specialist) or recycling for the disintegrating ones - with more to go. I'll wait on counting them till I have finished!2 -
Note the judge picked as Special Master, while fair, is notorious for the length of time he takes over issuing opinions.bondegezou said:
Unfortunately, having to appeal drags the process out. Trump just needs to keep dragging everything out and he's fine.Nigelb said:
Conway: This ruling is absolutely a disgrace. And I don't think it's going to take very much to overturn it. Barr told The New York Times that the original motion by Trump's lawyers was a crock of shit, a crock of shit. This opinion is worse than that..Nigelb said:Harvard law Professor Emeritus reduced to 'WTF'.
Judge Cannon says: “[T]here has been no actual suggestion by the Government of any identifiable emergency or imminent disclosure of classified information arising from Plaintiff’s allegedly unlawful retention of the seized property.”
Fact check: WTF?
https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1570742503271469056
https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1570570377486647296
And Cannon's ruling has left herself the power to change Special Master on a whim.
It is the most disgraceful episode in a recent catalogue of judicial degradations.0 -
It also only works if the bad guys show some remorse. The Nuremberg trials after WW2 show that reconciliation wasn't the approach for everyone. In Spain's case the main bad guy had died which made life a lot easier.ydoethur said:
South Africa did OK with the Truth and Reconciliation Committee.Stuartinromford said:
The tragedy is that the best way (maybe the only way) to stop the cycle is to not extract the revenge you are entitled to. See Germany 1945, or Spain 1975.Leon said:
And this is just one small town. Imagine what they will find in a place like Mariupolturbotubbs said:
I really hope the perpetrators see justice. Hell, they may already be dead, killed by the Ukranians. I'm struggling how the rest of the world is still talking to Putin. I get diplomacy, but this is WW2 levels of behavior.Leon said:Ugh
MULTIPLE BODIES AT MASS BURIAL SITE IN UKRAINE'S IZIUM FOUND WITH ROPE AROUND THEIR NECKS AND WITH HANDS TIED - REUTERS WITNESSES - Reuters News
https://twitter.com/phildstewart/status/1570744714445594626?s=20&t=-MZSM5as34cUqJOvJqTTCA
It is a bleak prospect, indeed. Ukrainians will want a terrible revenge
But it's hard to do for oneself, and impossible for a mortal to tell someone else to do that.
But that was made easier by the fact there was a widely respected figure to chair it. I do not see a possible equivalent to Tutu in Ukraine.3 -
I thought he was a shoe salesman in first Auckland and then Cologne?Malmesbury said:
Putin wasn't murdering for the KGB - he was a paper pusher, I believe.IshmaelZ said:
Some of them do just fine, others are Boris Johnson. There have been stacks of hereditary monarchs who were spectacularly good at their jobs, so maybe how you got the gig is not so important. On current showing, being a TV comic seems to work better than murdering for the KGB.Dura_Ace said:
He was the mascot of Hartlepool United FC who got elected as the mayor of that benighted shit hole. It was the first place in the UK to have an Anne Summers next to an Early Learning Centre. It just saves time.kinabalu said:What's this "H'Angus" business?
I suspect Dynamo is rejecting the green t-shirt dialectic of the Prince of the Kievan Rus' and drawing a comparison with novelty candidates who inadvertently find themselves thrust into Great Events.
The murdering is a hobby he took up later in life - "Find a hobby that people will pay you for, and you'll be happy for life"
Later on, he decided to put the boot in.0 -
Despite braking every rule and law involving motoring, including those relating to physics, in no Fast and Furious film do they misuse the horn.Nigelb said:
You tried every order ?Dura_Ace said:
6, 5, 7, 3, 1, 4, 2, Fate, 9, X is the best watching sequence.OnlyLivingBoy said:
Depends how many of the Fast and Furious movies are on the plane's entertainment system.Nigelb said:
I think it tends to be a habit you either catch young, or don't catch at all.NickPalmer said:
Are there stats, with demographic breakdown, on how many people read books AT ALL? Opinium periodically asks me what I've done this year and how often, with a list of major things like taking a long-haul flight. One of them is "I've read a book". There aren't many days when I've not read a few pages, at least, but I get the impression that this marks me as Olde School, like stamp-collecting or reading a physical newspaper.TOPPING said:
5% is great. I haven't done the math for mine.
I find it very difficult to get through, these days, even the Times Saturday Review without being tempted.
There are some that I purposely keep unread, waiting, as a treat at some point.
I detest people who say "oh you should read this" as the motives are near-universal point-scoring but....I don't think anyone should go through life without reading Portrait of the Artist.
Both my children did.
And what better way to pass a long haul flight than read a book ?1 -
Sorry, I'm being dim?Nigelb said:
Or very careful when to use them for writing a cheque...Carnyx said:pm215 said:
Even if you do like modern, biros are just straight-up bad as writing instruments compared to a good disposable gel ink pen, which writes far more smoothly and reliably. The only thing biros have going for them is that they are the cheapest of the cheap, and then you get what you pay for...turbotubbs said:
I can't imagine that Charles uses anything other than a fountain pen - he's a traditionalist. Biro is far too modern.
...Some gel ink pens are actually deliberately erasable. I buy them for marking up proofs in different colours, as I can then erase any mistakes or resolved queries. I have to be very careful not to use them for writing a cheque, for instance.pm215 said:
Even if you do like modern, biros are just straight-up bad as writing instruments compared to a good disposable gel ink pen, which writes far more smoothly and reliably. The only thing biros have going for them is that they are the cheapest of the cheap, and then you get what you pay for...turbotubbs said:
I can't imagine that Charles uses anything other than a fountain pen - he's a traditionalist. Biro is far too modern.0 -
I spent a week in the middle of Cognac a few years ago. Found it very attractive.Leon said:
No, I read it, and thought it interesting and judiciousBenpointer said:
You missed my quite excellent summary travelblog yesterday evening, of our road trip to Italy!Leon said:
Google says social media, especially Facebook. That's where 50%+ of Americans now get their newsBenpointer said:
Not from cable?Leon said:
Carlson has the second most watched show on US cable news. He is a pivotal media figure, and will be important in the POTUS elexthart said:
Yes interesting. Would be rather like moving a bunch of asylum seekers to HampsteadLeon said:Talking of race, as you are, Tucker Carlson - whatever you think of him - is extremely good at baiting the American Left on this subject (and others)
Check this
https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1570585089272053761?s=20&t=QaNTu_l1YSt0hBforg-kLw
Some of it is genuinely funny, some brusque and crude - but still likely effective
For the record, I abhor plenty of his views, especially his vile havering over Putin's war. But I can recognise powerful polemics, using humour
That said, he only gets 3.2m viewers, which is fairly pitiful given the size of the USA, indeed the viewer figures for all cable news are eye-openingly low
The top ten are all Fox, apart from one, Rachel Maddow, at 9
https://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/here-are-the-top-rated-cable-news-shows-for-q2-2022/510090/
The highest rated CNN news show is Anderson Cooper. He gets 767,000 viewers. It's TINY. He probably gets fewer viewers than GB News
Where, then, are Americans getting their news?!
I wonder if that is still true (about FB), and even if it is true, the news has to be generated somewhere else. FB is merely the medium
TLDR: France and Italy both remain exquisite in pretty much every respect (at least the parts we visited).
Eating out though is, as you suggested, is not what it was. Quality good not outstanding but pricier than the UK (except cheese and good wine).
France and Italy are indeed magnificently beautiful countries, which have not trashed their cities and towns, the way we have, too often - and continue to do, amazingly. What is wrong with us. The turd in Edinburgh!
That said, most tourism is confirmation bias, you go to the beautiful bits. France and Italy have some crap regions as well. Large parts of Picardy in France, also the Cognac region down to Bordeaux: often surprisingly bleak. An industrial landscape, except the industry there is wine, so we don't realise
Shit bits of Italy: urban parts of Liguria, the endless suburbia of the Veneto, the sprawl north of Milan, the dormitory towns of Naples, nearly all of Calabria
But they probably don't have as many crap regions/towns as us, and they are simply bigger, so they can hide them better
Re the food, I can't work out if the decline is relative or absolute. Have we just caught up with French/Italian food so we are less impressed, or has it actually got worse? I suspect both. And we notice the lack of variety more, as our own food is so diverse
Speaking of food I had another absolutely excellent meal in Seville last night. The fourth in a row. It is not a fluke. Spanish food is now the best in Europe, maybe the world0 -
What's that?TimS said:
Couldn't he just use docusign like everyone else?Carnyx said:pm215 said:
Even if you do like modern, biros are just straight-up bad as writing instruments compared to a good disposable gel ink pen, which writes far more smoothly and reliably. The only thing biros have going for them is that they are the cheapest of the cheap, and then you get what you pay for...turbotubbs said:
I can't imagine that Charles uses anything other than a fountain pen - he's a traditionalist. Biro is far too modern.
There's a practical issue. What KCIII wants to be certain of is that his signature will not fade - that means, for certainty, a fountain pen, with a bottle of permanent black ink from a known supplier. Also an ink that doesn't attack the paper (as some iron gall inks do). (A Rotring with IIRC carbon particle ink would also do. But it is more awkward to write with.)pm215 said:
Even if you do like modern, biros are just straight-up bad as writing instruments compared to a good disposable gel ink pen, which writes far more smoothly and reliably. The only thing biros have going for them is that they are the cheapest of the cheap, and then you get what you pay for...turbotubbs said:
I can't imagine that Charles uses anything other than a fountain pen - he's a traditionalist. Biro is far too modern.
Lots of biro or gel pens have ink dye which is fugitive with time and especially light. Some ink migrates and smears like a chromatograph if activated with vapour from adjacent materials (actually, that's exactly the principle).
Some gel ink pens are actually deliberately erasable. I buy them for marking up proofs in different colours, as I can then erase any mistakes or resolved queries. I have to be very careful not to use them for writing a cheque, for instance.0 -
Ireland’s leading public intellectual is visiting San Francisco. Click the link to discover his identity.
https://twitter.com/irelandinsf/status/15700643252926095360 -
Ebooks are brilliantly convenient. I am reading Hugh Thomas' splendid history of the Spanish empire out here in Seville, I bought it the day I arrived, now it is on my phone and iPad and I can read it anywhere as I walk the city, which is so drenched in Spanish imperial history. Delightfuljamesdoyle said:
My bookshop-owning friend (and while I'm at it, I'll give her a plug: The Book Ferret in Arundel, delightful independent bookshop staffed by 1 human and 3 whippets, do go and buy something) has noticed a real upswing in sales over the past few years. I think the lockdown did have an effect, but also a lot of her customers have tired of Kindles and ebooks in general,and gone back to paper.Leon said:
Actually, UK publishing is having a good time. Sales for 2022 are 10% up from 2019. Yay!NickPalmer said:
Are there stats, with demographic breakdown, on how many people read books AT ALL? Opinium periodically asks me what I've done this year and how often, with a list of major things like taking a long-haul flight. One of them is "I've read a book". There aren't many days when I've not read a few pages, at least, but I get the impression that this marks me as Olde School, like stamp-collecting or reading a physical newspaper.TOPPING said:
5% is great. I haven't done the math for mine.
I find it very difficult to get through, these days, even the Times Saturday Review without being tempted.
There are some that I purposely keep unread, waiting, as a treat at some point.
I detest people who say "oh you should read this" as the motives are near-universal point-scoring but....I don't think anyone should go through life without reading Portrait of the Artist.
https://twitter.com/JonnyGeller/status/1570704824022319104?s=20&t=-MZSM5as34cUqJOvJqTTCA
Nearly all fiction
Now this many be a load of insecure low watt intellectual mediocrities like @TOPPING buying the latest Okri so they can pretend to have read it, so they can then talk about it embarrassingly, or it could be actual people buying books and reading them
My guess is the latter. Indeed I'd have a guess this is because of Covid. A lot of people got back into the reading habit during the lockdowns - I know I did (eventually) - and maybe this habit is sticking?
If so, it's a rare upside of the wretched bug
There's also the effect of good series, and tv adaptations: Heartstopper is the Harry Potter of our times.
And yet, I would vastly prefer the real thing. Paper books are so emotionally satisfying. That feeling of "there, I've read that" when you close them for the last time. The gratifyingly cracked spine, the little notes you make in the margins, the underlinings, the dog ears, the fact you can lend or give them to friends, the whole damn thing. Yay for books. And yay for readers. My daughters DEVOUR books. I have not always been the bestest father, but I made damn sure they got the reading habit5
